The funeral services for Mrs. Geneva are:

• Visitation – Thursday 1-8pm
• Funeral – Friday 10am

All services are the Fairdale-McDaniel Funeral Home in Fairdale right beside the church.

I would like for anyone who views this to help me out. Please.

I am working on a project.

I would like for you to leave a comment telling me your favorite song LYRIC.

I am wanting to capture all these amazing song lyrics and do some stuff with them.

So Please do this for me. Take a minute and leave me the comment with the song lyric.

REMEMBER = Not your favorite song, or your favorite lyrics. But your favorite lyric. I guess, what I am looking for is “one line” from a song.

Please do it. Thanks in advance.

At a funeral today, there were so many people gathered together today because of one simple reason = we all were friends with the gentleman that had passed away.

I heard one of the ministers make this statement:

“I want all the people I know and love to know and love all the people I know and love.”

It stuck with me. I like this statement.

The people in my life that I know and love are such a blessing that I really wish that everyone else who does not know them could know them.

Making this comment is really another way of telling someone “I love you, you are meaningful to me, and I wish all my other friends knew you too.”

Hearing that, moreover feeling that from someone, would mean so much.

Heres the point: Let people know how special they are to you.

What a great point to live by! What a great truth to help you in life! You are what you are! This is the point that Paul is making in 2 Corinthians 11 and 12 when he is speaking about “boasting.”

2 Corinthians 12:6 “so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.”

WOW! What a statement. What humility! What a God-centered, Christ-honoring, all-attention-to-King-Jesus attitude!

Paul is saying that he doesn’t want to boast, or say too much, in case someone may think more of him than he really is. He is what he is by the grace of God. (1 Cor. 15:10)

I pray the church of today would see themselves rightly and therefore be lowly and humble, so that in all things Christ may get the attention and glory!

A great time long-time friend of mine, Josh Honeycutt, is blogging now, and I have been so blessed by it. The two of us grew up together and were in the same Youth Group together during high school. I am so blessed by his biblical insight.

Please click here to check out his blog DYNAMENO and the many similarities he has found between Noah and Jonah. It is interesting.

On a very, very tired Monday morning, I am leaning heavily on the Word of God. Last week took its toll on me. These truths are what keep us going.

Psalm 3:3 “But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.”

Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Isaiah 40:31 “but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Psalm 51:12 “uphold me with a willing spirit.”

2 Corinthians 12:9,10 “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness… for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

And perhaps my favorite strengthening passage for today:

Psalm 23:2-3 “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.”

Last night for our Sunday evening service, I planned to preach through Psalm 63. But every once in a while I allow for the whole congregation to have the liberty to raise their hand and share any and everything that they would like to with the rest of us. It is really good to hear people speaking about encouraging and refreshing things in their lives through their walk with Christ.

Well last night, this carried on long enough that I was only left with about 10 minutes to preach. So I shifted gears a bit and explained verse 3 of Psalm 63.

“Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.”

There is a comparison here between God’s steadfast love and life. David, the author of this psalm, says that God’s love is better than life.

The point I wanted our church to grab hold of and completely digest and stand rooted and established in  is that LIFE IS NOT BEST. It is not!

While things in this life may be good, they are not the best. And while things in this life may be bad, there is something better.

Life is full of good and bad. But we all should know that the lottery, and parties, and relationships, and new cars and cell phones are Not the best thing ever. Just like we know that polar pops, and drugs, and stolen air-conditioner units is Not the best thing ever.

The love of God in Christ Jesus for us is so good. It is so lasting. It is so refreshing and restoring. It is so sin-forgiving. It is so peace-bringing. It is so unlike-anything-else-this-life-can-give.

The love of God in Christ Jesus is the best!  Paul knew that. That is why in Phil. 1 he could say “for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” For those people who know God’s love, they are fully aware that this life is not best.

So, lets resolve to never ever allow our lives and thrills to send the message that Life is the best thing ever. It is not. God’s love in Christ Jesus is!

Polar Pops are arguably the most well-known thing in all of Fairdale. Nearly everyone I know loves Polar Pops.

A Polar Pop is a big, huge, refreshing fountain drink sold at Circle K gas stations. In Fairdale, we only have one gas station. It sells Marathon gasoline and is a ‘Circle K’ convenience store. A few years ago the gas station was a ‘Dairy Mart’, but it changed ownership and became a ‘Circle K.’

That is when the Polar Pop arrived! The ‘Circle K’ brought in a gigantic fountain drink machine. (Now, most convenience stores these days have big fountain drink machines.) The awesome part was that they only cost 59 cents. Plus tax that came out to 63 cents. It was incredible! Any flavor fountain drink anyone could desire. Big and Cold and Refreshing. And only for 63 cents. It was such a good deal that everyone in Fairdale came to depend upon it.

Since the Polar Pop has caught Fairdale by surprise, the price has changed. It went up 10 cents. They now cost 69 cents, plus tax equals 73 cents. Every teenager in Fairdale can tell you that from memory. Hundreds of kids a day walk to Circle K carrying only 73 cents. Many kids pick one up on the way to school and then grab another one on their way home from school.

The Polar Pop has become such a staple that people often go through the Dairy Queen drive-thru and order a meal without a drink and then stop by the Circle K to get the bigger, less expensive Polar Pop. It is such a good deal that people depend on it now. This Christmas the Circle K in Fairdale had a drawing to raffle off a Mountain Bike covered in Polar Pop decals. I even got several Polar Pop t-shirts from the manager to give away to people. Polar Pops are a movement!

I was thinking about the influence of the Polar Pop today. If someone was to drink a Polar Pop everyday for a year,(Undoubtedly, some people do. Many people drink 2 and 3 a day.) they would have spent $266. If they only drank 5 Polar Pops a week (And I know all kinds of people who do this), then they still would have spent $189. Now, I am not saying that the person necessarily wasted that much money. The Polar Pop is so pleasing and refreshing and so affordable that it is actually a very good and wise purchase.

The Polar Pop is such an impactful common item to the young people of Fairdale that for a Christmas present this year we gave every one of our youth in our church Youth Group a gift card to Circle K for only 73 cents. The ladies working the cash register loved Nate and I when we came in asking for those.

The Polar Pop does bring some negativity though. Because of how prevalent they are particularly in our town, you see them littered all over the place. Every yard or parking lot has been the victim of an empty Polar Pop cup. The litter is not only the negative they bring, but also the weight gain. Drinking 32 ounces of Coke or Mountain Dew or Big Red is not and never has been good for you. Drinking several Polar Pops a day is outright terrible for you! So as much as I love Polar Pops, I do wish they were all placed into garbage cans when finished. And I do wish people would have some self-control and not allow a soda drink to cause them to be overweight.

All of this brings me to say that I am really and truly thankful for Polar Pops. They have brought much joy and excitement and atmosphere to my life and to our town. There is no telling how many Polar Pop drinks I have bought for kids as we have been hanging out. That has served to be a very small and minor instrument in the work of God. Countless relationships have been blessed and deepened over a short walk to Circle K to get Polar Pops.

I’m about to go get one now!

While visiting our families in North Carolina over Christmas, we got a big snow. Here is a picture of me with Eli and my father with JJ. My dad has always lead us to do fun things outdoors like building a snowman. You can see many more pictures on our family blog at www.joshjr.blogspot.com

I believe that wholeheartedly.

I believe it because Genesis 1 and 2 describe that clearly.

But I also recently was thinking through Acts 17:26

“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place”

God  made every nation of mankind from one man, Adam. Adam was the first human. Eve was the first woman. And from those two, God populated the entire earth.

I believe it.