March 08, 1998

JOY

Because of the bad weather, I made a beeline to the first church in Hartman, SC that I happened to come across. This was the First Baptist Church. I got there a little after 10:30 a.m. and was able to attend the last few minutes of the Bible class. I did get to meet the pastor before the service.

Some of the people in the congregation showed a bit that they were concerned about who I was because of how I looked. At least before the service, some people opened up to me. My only concern was that my t-shirt was soaked when I took my coats off so I was a bit chilled during the service.

Before the sermon, there was a testimony from a young undertaker. He talked about a young girl who had been killed by a car accident and of his concerns in life. At the end, he said for the inscription of his undertaker's ring he had chose "the L-RD provides."

In his sermon, the pastor talked about "Methodists" because they used methods to obtain their righteousness. I wasn't too thrilled that he seemed to be knocking down another Christian denomination because of their practices but he did say a few other things that I thought they were good to remember.

One of them, was what he called the "JOY" Method in determining our relationship to others. "JOY" stood for Jesus, Others, Yourself. He explained that we should not be one of the crowds, be willing to be on the bottom of the heap, and develop and attitude of gratitude.