God's agenda is always best

Baptism is a very special moment in a believer's life. It's often
the first act of obedience to Jesus Christ.

This past Saturday baptism and hitting the streets with our mobile kitchen were not on our list of things to do. Notice I wrote they were not on "our list."

The key to following Jesus is setting our agenda aside and being open to His. The agenda we set for each day may well be what Jesus wants us to do, however, we better be ready and willing to change as His Spirit leads.

"The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." - Proverbs 16:9

A man we have known for a about eight years came to Love In Action on Saturday. It had been a a month or so since we had seen Jeff. The last time he came to LIA he finally surrendered to Jesus. Different battles have consumed Jeff over the years. He knows God's Word very well. It's putting His Word into action that's the key.

He finally got to the point of where he was tired living life his way, so he surrendered to Jesus. He asked me then if he could come back to LIA and be baptized. Well, that day was Saturday. After a rough couple of weeks, Jeff said he needed to be obedient to Jesus. "Can I get baptized today," he asked me. "Of course," I replied.

We close LIA at 2 p.m., so I started filling up the baptismal trough around 1:30. Some of our volunteers stayed to witness Jeff's baptism. It was one of those very sweet and yet powerful times. Baptism is a very special moment in a believer's life. It is often our first act of obedience to Jesus, and an outward witness of our decision to follow Jesus.

It's also a special moment for the person blessed to be doing the baptism. I don't take that honor lightly. To carry out my Lord's Great Commission always humbles me. Baptizing believers is part of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. It's one of my most favorite things to do.

After baptizing Jeff, we figured we would finish cleaning up and go home after a long, hot week. Then I received a phone call from a friend who works with the Dothan Fire Department. He said the Dothan High School Fellowship of Christian Athletes had some hotdogs to donate to us from the Dothan High spring football game. Bro. Dan drove to Rip Hewes Stadium to pick them up. He should have driven our truck.

There were hundreds of hotdogs and buns, 17 cases of water, and around a dozen boxes of potato chips. Wow! What a blessing!

Now what were we going to do? That decision was easy for Martha, Dan and me. God just blessed us with a lot of food, and the hotdogs needed to be used right away. So, we hooked the LIA Mobile Kitchen to our pickup truck and hit the streets with hotdogs and chips. We served hundreds of hotdogs. People were very happy and thankful to receive all of those bagged meals. We also blessed our friends at The Harbor Church will a bunch of hotdogs, buns and chips.

God's agenda is always best. As God tells us in Isaiah 55:8-9, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Let's always remember that and be open to everything He has for us to accomplish each day.

Here I am with my beautiful bride and Bro. Dan as we spend the second half of
Saturday afternoon serving up hundreds of hotdogs to those in need in Dothan.