God is Creator

Have you noticed the awesome handiwork of God in the changing colors of the leaves?

Isn’t it remarkable that many do not recognize God as our Creator and the great architectural designer of the world in which we live? I recently attended the Sav-A-Life banquet hosted by our church. The speaker was evangelist Ronnie Hill. His mother, Sandra, was there also as a surprise guest. She introduced her son right before he was to speak. What she shared was one of the most fascinating works of God I’ve heard in a long time. She shared her testimony of how she had been gang raped and became pregnant. Her doctors advised her to abort her child. She refused and gave birth to Ronnie. Who would have known but sovereign God that Ronnie would be used to win thousands to faith in Jesus Christ! As Sandra stated, “To God be the Glory!”

Ronnie stood and approached the platform and gratefully thanked his mother for sparing his life. They embraced for several minutes as we felt the warmth and close bond of this miraculous union. In his message, Ronnie referenced Psalms 139 in which he acknowledged God as our Creator and Lord. In Psalms 139:13-14 the Bible states:

“For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  What a powerful testimony we heard from Ronnie Hill and his mother as it gave such validity and identification to the word of God! Before Ronnie spoke, Angela Oliver who is the director of the Athens Sav-a-Life Organization came and shared a tremendous eye-opening video of a live sonogram in which a baby fetus was sucking his thumb, smiling, yawning and even opening his eyes….in the womb! And people have the audacity to say that life doesn’t begin until after the baby is actually born. I wish they could have witnessed that sonogram! I recently became a board member of Sav-a-Life. I did so because I have six precious grandchildren…..the sixth one still lives in her mother’s womb waiting his/her time to be born. I believe in the precious gift of life at conception. I desire to help make a difference in our country in which we’re aborting millions of children! Is it any wonder that we’re seeing numerous child abuse cases and abductions almost weekly in our land? When a society has a disregard for human life inside the womb it can carry over to a disregard for life outside the womb. God help us to come to our senses! I’d ask each of us to invest in the life of a child. That’s why I support Sav-a-Life and why I preach that God is Creator.

From my view — Pastor Dusty

Two Services Have Arrived

We made it!! Two services (8:45 & 10:30 a.m.) alongside our two Sunday Schools (same times) have finally arrived and are in full swing! Get this: we’re already experiencing growth! In just our second week of going to two services, we’re seeing growth in both services! This past Sunday we had almost 1000 in both services (almost 400 in the first service and over 600 in the second!) Add these numbers to our two children’s worship services and Lindsay Lane is running around 1250-1300 in total attendance! To God be the glory! Amen. You might be thinking; “these are just numbers and you’re boasting in numbers.” Not at all, sweet friend. These are PEOPLE! LLBC is about reaching and ministering to people…all people!

Allow your excited Pastor to say a big, hearty THANK YOU!! This transition has taken the effort and support of everyone. Your “whatever it takes to reach others” attitude has proven to be blessed by God. And, God always blesses obedience to His will and His Word! I pray these services (messages on Spiritual Gifts) alongside our Sunday school are a blessing to you as you seek our Lord in your spiritual growth. Just a reminder….please be faithful in attending a Bible study class of your choice. Those of you who attend the first service at 8:45 a.m., don’t forget to make Sunday School (Bible Study) a part of your complete worship experience. By the way, we are still in one service on Wednesday nights! Come see what God is teaching His church as I’m expositorally preaching through the books of I & II Corinthians on Wednesday nights.

Together as the body of Christ, we’re growing numerically although our goal is to grow & mature spiritually. Remember, our desire and purpose statement at LLBC is to “make disciples who worship, grow & serve!” And praise be to God that is exactly what’s happening! Thanks friends! You’re the best! —Pastor Dusty

Whatever It Takes!

I’m grateful to God that I have the awesome privilege of pastoring a church like LLBC. A church who has embraced the vision of doing whatever it takes to reach this world for Jesus Christ; a church that’s truly making a difference by its willingness to be different. For the past year or so, Lindsay Lane has reached the 80% capacity number in our worship service attendance. We have actually plateaued and even slid downward in numbers. We’ve been monitoring these numbers in our sanctuary for some time now. The only avenue to continue our growth is to provide more space. That simply means we either build another building or provide space by offering two worship services. Finances and good stewardship dictates the later.

After several meetings and fervent prayer, the sanctuary space issue can be resolved by going to two Worship services in conjunction with our two morning Sunday schools. The target date is October 4^th, 2009. The new times would consist of a Worship service and Sunday school at 8:45 am until 10:00 am. There will then be a thirty minute fellowship and transition period before the start of the second services which begin at 10:30 am and conclude around 11:45 am. This means those who previously attended the 9:30 am worship and 11:00 am Sunday school would now attend the 8:45 Worship and the 10:30 Sunday school. Those who attended the 8:00 am Sunday school and 9:30 am Worship would now attend the 8:45 am Sunday school and the 10:30 am Worship. With these new times, everyone will start at 8:45 am and leave together at 11:45 am. Parking will soon become an issue with everyone on campus at the same time. Additional parking space will be added as needed.

Again, we’re doing whatever it takes to reach our area for Christ! We’ve been in two services before for eight years and God richly blessed. I’m very confident He’ll do it again! Allow me to say thank you for your willingness to sacrifice in doing whatever it takes to make a difference! 

I love you more than words can say! 

Pastor Dusty

A Lesson in Communication

I was having lunch Thursday with a new friend of mine named Paul Hunter. He is the new Senior Pastor of Jackson Way Baptist Church in Huntsville. He had asked to meet with me as sort of a mentor as he is embarking on new territory as the Senior Pastor of a fairly large church. I had attended Bible College with his dad and he had recommended
that Paul get in touch with me. A funny story preludes our first effort at meeting together.
I told Paul to meet me at Ruby Tuesday’s in Madison at high noon. I went in and waited for Paul whom I’d never met. I waited and waited but Paul didn’t show. And given that patience is not my greatest virtue, I finally called Paul’s secretary who informed me that Paul had called her a few minutes prior and asked if she had heard from me. You see, he was also sitting at Ruby Tuesday’s in Madison BUT at the I-565 location! There are two locations in Madison! I remembered what I’ve counseled with so many others… “Communication is essential”. By the way, another good piece of advice; never assume!

So, Paul and I finally met up this past week. Paul is a very pleasant and intelligent young pastor. We had a great conversation of how God is blessing our respective churches and that He is such an awesome God. As I talked with Paul, I had the opportunity to reminisce about how God has worked so powerfully both in my life and in the life of His church! I had the awesome privilege of telling Paul just how miraculously God continues to show Himself strong at Lindsay Lane. By the way, I’m still in awe after eighteen years of being the Senior Pastor of such a wonderful church! God has richly blessed this great church. Oh, how I love Him and each of you! What a blessing it is to come to work (ministry) each day and see just what God plans to do next. If you haven’t taken the time to stop and reflect back on just how good God has been to you, then I’d encourage you strongly to do so. You may just find that He still desires to bless you. You’ll also be reminded that He needs to be placed in higher priority in your daily life. As I shared with Paul, Lindsay Lane can do nothing without God’s help and neither can we!

He is Messiah!

I was listening to a CD someone had given me while driving into work the other day. Something the preacher stated jolted my thoughts (which could be very dangerous I’m told!) He was speaking of our Lord Jesus’ death on the cross of Calvary and how He was there due to our sin. As Jesus hung on the cross He uttered seven different phrases which have been preached by many pastors, etc. But, one statement that Jesus voiced seems to stand out above all the others. Our Lord and King said seemingly in astonishment, “My God, My God why have you forsaken Me?” Immediately our theological minds begin to question how the loving Father could ever forsake His Son whom He really was!!

Well, you know the common answer as students of systematic theology. God was one hundred percent God and He is one hundred percent Man. He’s the God-Man…and that He is! When you add the fact that God hates sin and the truth that sin separates and isolates us from God, then you can arrive at the mystery of why God had forsaken His Son. At that moment in time, Jesus the Christ hung on the tree of Calvary as one hundred percent Sin! The Bible validates this truth in II Corinthians 5:21, “He (Jesus) who knew no sin became sin that we (saints) might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Can you believe it? Jesus, the perfect Son of God was God in flesh and bone! Yet God through Jesus Messiah, choose to become our sin so that you and I would not have to suffer eternal damnation though separation and isolation from God the Father! As you ponder that awesome thought, think about these great truths:

• Jesus became our sin so we would never be separated from God!
• Jesus became our prisoner so we could be set free!
• Jesus became our loneliness so we would never be lonely again!
• Jesus became our Hell so we could be in Heaven!
• Jesus became our thirst so we would never thirst again!

 Yes, Jesus was forsaken for a moment so we would live for eternity with Him!

You Make the Call

“I can see clearly now the rain is gone…” or is it? What’s up with all this rain? Oh, well I’ll be complaining later on this summer because it’s too hot and then I’ll humbly bow and pray for rain. Have you ever thought about God’s children acting a lot like our own? I mean one child wants to go outside while the other wants to stay inside…one wants to swim and the other watch TV…one wants McDonalds and the others screams for pizza! A parent can’t win! Well, what about God?  God’s role reminds me a great deal of being an umpire! Whatever call He makes someone’s not going to like it. For example, that’s the way the children of Israel were as they constantly complained to God against Moses. If you’ll remember, while in Egyptian bondage they complained about their hard labor and lack of freedom. God graciously delivered them and set them free as His very own people. No sooner had they made it miraculously across the Red Sea than they began to complain against Moses. Yes, Mr. Ump you really blew that call…no sir, it was right down the middle! Seriously, I wonder what God thinks sometimes about His children being so fickle…or you might even say selfish.

 

God reminds us in I Timothy 6:6-8 that “godliness plus contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But, if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.”

In other words, stop complaining about what you don’t have and be thankful for what you do have. You know, we don’t always have to be right! And it’s for sure we won’t always get our own way. Kids that do are spoiled, which leads to more complaining and attitudes that need adjusting. Right! We as parents are a lot like those umpires at times. We have to make the tough calls knowing that someone will probably be upset with our decision. I have a dear friend who I think put making tough calls into its proper perspective. He said, “it’s easy making a call sitting in the grandstand with a hotdog in your hand!” Learn to be content. Try to relax and enjoy the game! Try and see the other person’s point of view for a change. Hey, you may even live longer. And the next time someone complains about the weather, just tell them, “Why don’t you make the call?”

Are We Quickly Approaching the End Times?

Have you noticed lately that the world in which we live has experienced a vast amount of unusual cataclysmic natural disasters? It seems we hear weekly of earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, floods, fires, and most recently swine flu. Couple these events with a great downward spiral of declining moral values such as murders, child molestations, suicides, sexual perversions, divorce and well, you get the picture! All this causes one to realize and raise the question, “Could we be living in the end times? Is time as we know it, running out?” Many believe, as I do, that we are definitely approaching the end of life on earth as we now know it. It seems as though God is using many natural traumatic changes in our world to prepare us for the coming attractions of the end times. We can only turn to the Scriptures and take a prophetic examination into God’s Word as to the unveiling of God’s plan for planet earth!

I’d like to invite you join me on May 17th as I begin a new sermon series on God’s prophetic word concerning the coming ‘End Times’. Together, we will explore and examine the Scriptures that teach of God’s plan for the coming ages. We will follow God’s biblical timeline of the coming events that will take place in the End Times.
We’ll be preaching/teaching on such biblical events of scripture beginning with:

1) The Great Apostasy
2) The Rapture of the Church
3) The Tribulation Period
4) The Anti-Christ
5) The Millennial Kingdom
6) The Second Coming of Jesus
7) The Great White Throne Judgment

So, please plan your calendars to be here each week as we discover God’s Word concerning the coming End Times. Please pray for your Pastor’s preparation that God will speak to me and use me during these powerful messages from God’s Word.
Always remember, that God loves you and so do I!!!

DVD on Gambling Ills Available to Churches

I’m thankful for the leadership of our Governor taking a stand on this volatile and devastating issue. I wanted to pass along the following article to you by Carrie Brown McWhorter written April 14, 2009. Please watch this video.

As the debate over gambling continues in the state Legislature, a video by Gov. Bob Riley is providing churches a way to educate their members on current laws regarding electronic bingo gambling machines.
The five-minute video features the governor addressing the “plague” of electronic bingo gambling halls across Alabama. These “so-called electronic bingo machines” are nothing more than slot machines and Alabama law is “crystal clear” on the legality of slot machines, Riley said.
“In 2006, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that a slot machine is illegal in Alabama, no matter what it is called. Machines that look like, sound like and attract the same class of customers as conventional slot machines … are illegal in Alabama,” Riley said.
Joe Bob Mizzell, director of the office of Christian ethics and chaplaincy ministries for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said the video was initiated by the governor to educate Alabamians on illegal gambling and the efforts of the Governor’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling, which was created in December 2008 to investigate what is happening with electronic bingo gambling across the state.
Mizzell’s office made 1,500 copies of the video in the form of a DVD and sent them out across the state. Large churches received copies, and each Alabama Baptist association received four copies to share with its smaller churches. The video is also available online here.
Churches can use the video anyway they want, Mizzell said. The idea is to help people understand what the governor is doing and why they should be opposed to the effort to expand gambling in the state.
James Sampley, pastor of First Baptist Church, Ashville, in St. Clair Baptist Association, said he used the video to prepare for the March 17 circuit court hearing about electronic bingo gambling in St. Clair County. He also used the information in Wednesday night prayer services at his church and passed copies of the video to other ministers in the county.
“The information in the video was invaluable to me in helping present the facts to the people,” Sampley said. “I am deeply appreciative to Gov. Riley for the stand he is taking.”
Joe Godfrey, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program, said he, too, is grateful Alabama has a governor who is willing to stand on his convictions against gambling in the state. The video is one way to combat the millions of dollars gambling supporters are pouring into the state, he said.
“We can’t afford the television ads and direct-mail pieces the other side is putting out,” Godfrey said. “This video gives us something we can share and get our word out.”
Godfrey hopes churches will use the video during announcements before or after worship services or at other times when a lot of people are gathered. He said churches that fear a church-state conflict should not be concerned. “This is a moral issue, and it is time churches and pastors took a stand,” he said. “This is spiritual warfare at an intensified level like we’ve never seen in this state before.”
To obtain a copy of the DVD, contact your local associational office or call Mizzell at 1-800-264-1225, Ext. 267.

Praise God for Easter!

He’s alive! Jesus is risen! We experienced two tremendous Easter services. We had a total of 1790 people on campus. To God be the glory! Allow me to personally thank everyone for your prayers and preparation for this “Super-bowl” of Sundays. Many of you stayed for both services and helped minister to our guests, as well as our membership. The moving of God’s Holy Spirit was evident as we witnessed many decisions made for Christ. Randy and the counselors did an outstanding job of ministering to those who made decisions. Also, a special thank you goes out to the choir and orchestra for a super job in leading us in honoring and the praising of our Lord. The worship was both Spirit-filled and motivational. Thanks Dwaine for your leadership.

 

I could go on and on just thanking everybody for an awesome job of service. I feel very fortunate and honored to be the Senior Pastor of such a dynamic church! You have caught the vision of servant-hood! As you well know, it takes a host of people to serve a church this size. So many of you are always willing to do whatever it takes to make a difference! For that, I am extremely grateful and proud to be your shepherd. Please join me in continuing to exalt our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As we lift Him up, He has a tendency to raise us up as well. I love you all.

 

A Better Alabama?

Hello friends! Pray you all had a great “Spring Break” and are ready for some spring/summer weather!  I want to write about a subject that most people don’t think much about until it involves them or a member of their family. The subject is gambling. Yes, it seems innocent enough but please believe me when I say gambling has the potential to destroy lives! As a former compulsive gambler,

I’ve experienced the tragedies of the wake left behind.

I’ve inserted a good word from Eric Johnson, director of Citizens for a Better Alabama to help expose the latest tactics of the gambling cronies. ”The people of our state are being inundated with a deceptive public relations campaign targeted to confuse citizens about a bill concerning illegal gambling in Alabama. The ads, which you may have seen or heard, feature country music singers promoting the “Sweet Home Alabama Plan” and saying “let the people vote” (wonder why these “older” country music singers are pushing this so? Maybe a Casino would be the only place left for them to perform!) The ads may look and sound good on TV, but it’s a scheme meant only to trick people. They say their plan will to stop illegal gambling. That’s just not true. The truth is, their plan will authorize the development of mega-casinos throughout the state and ultimately invite more crime and corruption into our communities. They say their plan is to tax “legal bingo” to pay for better schools. That’s just not true. In fact, it’s not bingo at all. Their plan authorizes Las Vegas style slot machines and would result in less than one half of one percent of education spending. The people of this state deserve to know the truth.” By the way, just look at how the “alcohol revenues” are helping the schools!! Bought any cookies or other items to help the schools lately?

Again, let me say how destructive gambling can be to an individual, a family and to our state! I hope you’ll join the cause and let your voice be heard! Please call you district Representative and State Senator and encourage them to vote NO on casinos, NO on corruption and NO to the spread of gambling in our state. Call your State Senator and State Representative today, and ask your family, friends, and fellow church members to do the same. You can click on the following links to find direct numbers for each legislator, or you can just call the House and Senate switchboard numbers listed below and ask for your legislators.

State Senate
Website
Phone: 334-242-7800

State House of Representatives
Website
Phone: 334-242-7600

God Bless you for standing the gap!

Pastor Dusty