Too Much A Secret

What may be the best kept secret about Second Baptist? I think Victory Garden would have to make the finalists' list. I want to share some statistics with you. This report can be extremely boring, unless you remember that behind every number are poor people all over our area who had extra to eat because of these numbers. Feast your eyes on this.

3,740 tomatoes (my favorites--I could eat fresh grown tomatoes at every meal year round), 3,000 green onions, 2,500 bulb onions (bad breath, but great eating), 3,500 radishes.

115 gallons of green beans, 26 gallons of peppers (sweet, mild, and hot), 50 gallons of squash and zucchini, and 260 gallons of cucumbers (Did I mention I'm addicted to pickles?).

1,150 pounds of lettuce, 488 pounds of potatoes, 9,600 pounds of corn. The latter number came alive to me when a friend told me his dad planted 1.5 acres of corn, and harvested only 8 ears due to raccoons and drought.

Our Master told us to care for the poor. Thanks to everyone who labored in our Victory Garden to help us obey Him.

Twitter & FB john316marshall

Our Unreached People Group

Last night we had a high level strategy session to discuss our church's work among the Bells of the big country, our unreached people group. Twenty-seven people made reservations to come; all twenty-seven came. 100% attendance. Impressive.

We have been working among the Bells for 15 years. We have 5 years to go on our 20-year commitment. The work has been slow. Maybe 400 have become believers. There are logical reasons why the last groups are the last groups. The main problems with the Bells are language, travel, isolation, and terrifying animism.

We are praying about sending a missionary to live among the Bells. We would pay the salary. The International Mission Board would provide oversight. Depending on the timing, we will be either the first or second church in the Southern Baptist Convention to partner with the IMB in this way. Please join me in praying daily for the Bells. God branded them deep within my psyche.

Twitter & FB john316marshall

Legacy

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about the legacy I want to pass on to my grandchildren. The main thing I hope they will be able to remember is that I was a man to whom holiness mattered most.

What we pass on to those who come behind us truly does matter. We are stewards of our legacy. Spurgeon wrote, "Our prayer ought not to be that we should see the whole of our success." We should live in such a way that our lives leave an echo for God.

We don't want to be like King Hezekiah, who was flippant about his legacy (2 K 20:19). We have better examples to follow. David gathered material for his son Solomon to use in the temple. Moses commissioned Joshua and Eleazar to lead the nation. Joshua told the people, "Choose you this day whom you will serve." We each have only one life to live here; pray each of our lives will reverberate to the Lord's glory long after we're gone.

Twitter and FB john316marshall

Hall of Famers

I am a sixth generation preacher. Five were Baptists; the first was a Methodist circuit riding preacher. The circuit riders have always been the hall of famers to me. God used them mightily. Historians say Methodism began to decline when the circuit riders dismounted.

We preachers can have somewhat of a martyr complex, feeling under-appreciated and overworked. Laypeople have trouble understanding the never ending, subtle, under the surface pressures that never leave us, even in the middle of the night. For all our complaining, though, we are grateful to have the greatest job in all the world. To think, God called us to be the ones He would entrust with the message about His unspeakable Son.

Speaking of hardships, I read last night in a history book by Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, two highly trusted writers, a brief summary of the circuit riders' plight. "The life of a circuit rider was one of extreme hardship. Of the first 700 Methodist circuit riders, nearly half died before age thirty, 199 of them within their first five years of service."

Makes me want to cry. Makes me proud to stand in their wake. Makes me want to never whine again. Thank You, Jesus, for letting me have the privilege of serving you as a Minister of the Gospel.

Myanmar

Baptist have for generations suffered persecution in Burma, now called Myanmar. Even our own State Department has recognized the horrible treatment they have received, and continues to give Baptists fleeing Myanmar top clearance to come to the USA. Makes me proud to be an American.

There has been much pressure lately from the international community for Burma to grant more freedom to its citizens. The worldwide attention given to Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi during her years of house arrest helped highlight the people's plight.

Burma claims to be making progress. Recently I met and visited with a Baptist preacher from Myanmar who is touring the USA. I privately asked him how things are. He said everything was very much better. Freedom was the order of the day. He was very humble, grateful for the liberty to preach there, and for the freedom to travel abroad. Amen. Good news for religious liberty. Adoniram Judson, our first USA Foreign Missionary, poured out his life as a missionary to Burma. He would be proud.

Twitter & FB john316marshall