The children of Israel had seen God do great miracles, but when they were in the wilderness they still asked, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? We know God can, but during the hard times we doubt whether He will or not.

Can I encourage you with something today? God always comes through. God does not always come through the way we think, or the way we plan, but He always comes through. They children of Israel didn’t expect God to give them food and water the way He did, but God provided in His own way. If we can’t see how with our limited vision, then we don’t think God will take care of it. God has a little better view of things than we do.

Someone brought up the name, "Lighthouse." When I thought about it, that described exactly what a church is supposed to do. The first thing a church is to do is to shine the light of Jesus and the Bible, warning people of the rocks of sin and of Hell. Then, if someone doesn't see the light, doesn’t take heed to the light, and gets too close to the rocks, the people in the lighthouse are there to rescue them. They are not there to condemn or preach to them now. They just bandage their wounds and try to help them to salvage the rest of their lives.

I believe that is what God does with us and what we are to do to help others. Yes, as a pastor, I will preach and cry aloud of all the rocks that the Devil puts in our way to destroy our lives. Then, if people don't see or listen, I will be there to help them recover and go on from there.

Don’t get me wrong; I believe that when someone does wrong, they deserve to be punished. But what I don’t like is for someone to look down on a person in jail, or a person that has been in jail. A lot of Pharisees would be in jail if they were caught for everything they have done. Also, if it were not for the grace of God, we could be in the same situation. Let’s thank God for what He has done for us, and do our best to help other people that for whatever reason are not as blessed as we.

When someone doesn’t have the right attitude about children, it is usually hard for the children to turn out right. When someone realizes they are precious little gifts from God to train for Him, it is amazing the difference in love, care, and concern for them.

To honor the Lord, we must make our children do what is right. There are too many parents that say, "I just let my children make their own decisions." That is not right. God gave the children to the parents to rear for the Lord. The parents should know more than the children, and should direct them to do what is right. If I allow my children to decide whether or not they go to church, I am putting my children above God. If I allow my children to watch bad things on TV, then I am putting my children above God. If I don’t direct my children in the right way then they will be hurt and eventually destroyed. Eli’s boys died a premature death because he put what his boys wanted above what God wanted.

Children are a gift from God. We are to teach them verbally and by example to live for Him. Let’s put God above everything in our life.

First of all, I would like to thank the people of Santa Fe School. From the cooks to the teachers, they were all great! "Thank you" to Mr. Jackson, our principal, and my grade school teachers: Ms. York, Mrs. Owens, Mrs. Adkisson, Mrs. Chunn, Mr. Cannon, and Mrs. Riggins. They were all very good to me.

I wish I had room to mention or could remember all my childhood friends: Ronnie, Jill, Janet, Kim, Phil, Jimmy, Lane, Marsha, Tammy, Kevin, Libby, Lori, Michael, and twins Ronnie & Donnie, and Gayle & Dale, etc. I have some great memories of times together with these people.

Also, I would like to mention the friendliness of the community. From going to the Santa Fe Diner with my dad and uncle J.W., to Potts’ Garage, the people were always so friendly. Everybody always had a *howdy* for you, whether they knew you or not.

You may be reading this thinking, "Why would Pastor Baker be writing an article about Santa Fe?" The Bible says that we should give honor unto whom honor is due. These good people definitely deserve honor for being the good, salt of the earth kind of people. We need more in this world like them.

Since Judge Lovell has given his life to this community, I think it would be good and right if the community would take this opportunity to give to him. It would be great for us to give him our love, our prayers, our support and ourselves, in any way we can. If you could take any time to send a card or make a visit to Vanderbilt, I know he and his family would greatly appreciate it.

The Bible says in Hebrews 13:3, “Remember...them which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body.” If you had an accident, what would want people to do for you? Let’s try to do the same for the Honorable Judge Lovell, a man definitely worthy of honor.

In Heaven, the most important thing I want is for Jesus to say to me, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” I want Jesus to be pleased with me when I get to meet Him face to face.

A couple years ago, I read a few verses that accomplished my two biggest goals at the same time. Matthew 5:11-12 says, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” According to the Bible, if I am persecuted for Jesus’ sake, then I will be blessed or happy down here, and I will have great rewards in Heaven. If I take a stand for Jesus in His Word, for winning souls, for the church, for doctrine, and am persecuted for it, then I will be happy here and rewarded in Heaven. To me that is amazing.

Don’t be ashamed to take a stand for Jesus and for right. Don’t let it bother you when people talk bad about you or lie about you. If you are doing right, you will be happy, and be greatly rewarded in Heaven.

The prophet Samuel was going to anoint another king. He went to the house of Jesse to see his sons. After Jesse brought all his sons before the prophet, Samuel said to Jesse, “Are here all thy children?” And Jesse said, “There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep.” His dad was basically saying, “My youngest son is just a keeper of the sheep, but surely he wouldn’t be the king. He won’t really amount to much.”

That young son ended up defeating the giant Goliath, and becoming the best king Israel ever had. We should never judge someone in saying that they will not amount to much. They may surprise us and be great!

One time, I had a preacher tell me that there are no great men, only men God has used in a great way. That sounds good and spiritual, but the statement goes against the Bible. Jeremiah 5:5 says, "I will get me unto the great men, and speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God..." Bro. Jack Hyles is a great man.

Bro. Hyles has been a gospel preacher for over fifty years, and has pastored the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, for over 40 years. The church he pastored has the largest Sunday school in the world, averaging over 25,000 people each week, with a high attendance of over 100,000. Bro. Hyles and the church have started and operate two grade schools, two jr. high and high schools, and a college of over 3,000 students. Bro. Hyles has written about 40 books and pamphlets that have sold over 12 million copies. He spent nearly every Monday and Tuesday for the last 30+ years traveling to other churches around the country and the world trying to help them reach more people for Christ. In the churches Bro. Hyles has pastored, over 1,000,000 people have walked the aisle professing their faith in Christ. For the past ten years, the church he pastored has had over 10,000 people each year follow the Lord in believers' baptism.

There is no way someone can summarize the life of a seventy-four- year-old man in a little article, but I did think it was important to let everyone know about a great man that has lived his life helping others and has now gone to be with the Lord in Heaven. Bro. Hyles passed away Tuesday at 9:43 a.m. He will be missed by many people. He was my pastor in college, and has been my friend for the past twelve years. If you would like to see some pictures of him, or read a little bit more about him, just go to his page on our web site.

It is amazing how many times we hear things that just aren't right. I am amazed at the things I hear about our church and myself that are totally not true.

One day, a lady called me and told me she heard something bad about me and our church and wanted to check it out. I told her that I was glad she called and told her the whole situation. After I was through explaining the situation, she said, "I didn't think it was right to believe it without checking out the situation. That wouldn't be very Christian." She also said, "Pastor, my dad told us growing up that when you move to a new town, find out what church is criticized and torn down the most, and usually that church is doing the most for God. That is probably the church you should join." That lady and her family came to visit our church, joined, has been here for almost two years. Now her mother, three brothers and their families have come, joined and love the church.

The only thing I would ever ask is that we treat people like we would want to be treated. Would you want someone to believe what someone says about you, or would you want to at least explain the situation to them? That is only fair, right, just and Biblical.

The Devil hates a church that is trying to reach people for Christ, and loves to be an "accuser of the brethren", to tear down the people of God, who are trying to help others.

However, there is something that is very hard for God to do, and that is to somehow show us how much He really loves us. God loves us more than our finite mind can imagine, and God is always trying to show us how much He loves us. Sometimes, we think that if God doesn't do things the way we want them done, when we want them done, that He doesn't love us. God always does what is good, best, right and just, but we don't always realize it. I am amazed to see the people who are bitter at God because He didn't do what they thought He should do. God loves so much, but it is hard to make people see and understand that.

The best illustration God ever gave us of how much He loves us was when He gave us His only begotten Son to die for our sins. Still, with doing that, people reject His incredible show of love.

Take some time today, look up to God, and thank Him for His wonderful love that He has shown to us. He loves when we don't understand it, and especially when we don't deserve it.

I think today that Jesus would rebuke many Christians and churches for not bringing the children to Him. Jesus does love the little children! We should do all we can to get the little children to Him.

At our church, we have a bus ministry. The bus ministry is used to bring anyone to church, but especially the children. Many parents have to work and cannot take their children to church. Other parents see Sunday as their only day off, and feel like they don't have time to go to church, but know their children need to go. We have a bus that goes to Mt. Pleasant, one that goes to Franklin, one that goes to Lewisburg, and two that pick up people in Columbia. If anyone needs a ride to church, just give us a call and we would be glad to help.

If Jesus physically walked on the earth today, I wonder if He would have a ministry that would pick up the boys and girls and bring them to Himself? I think He would.

The man that has gone through more than probably any man that has ever lived, besides Jesus, was Job. Job lost his ten children, his wealth and all he had, within a few minutes time. He still loved and trusted God. He didn't get bitter at God and say, "You shouldn't have let this happen to me." Here is what Job said in Job 13:15, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him..." He was saying that if God pulled out a sword and went to kill him, he would still trust Him. That is some amazing trust.

If you have gone through some hard times and some things that you don't understand, don't get bitter at God. He is there to help you. If Job could still trust God after what he had been through, then surely you can, too.

About nine years ago, Gayle's mother became too ill to live in her home and take care of herself, and moved in with Charles and Gayle. Both of them have given up part of their lives to care for Gayle's mother. No one knows the hours or money they have willingly spent. So much so, that Gayle was almost confined to the house while caring for her mother, as Charles continued his long hours of work. A few days ago, Mary Roundtree, Gayle's mother, passed away. She is in a lot better place, and will not hurt ever again. There are two people especially, whose lives will be totally different. I know they would not want this attention, but I thought it would be good to honor someone that was willing to give up part of their life to help someone else. That is a very Christlike thing to do.

The best thing to do is to realize that you are not alone and that everyone has problems. We need to be willing to humble ourselves to get help for the things in our life that are not right. God has put the answers to every problem about life in the Bible. God knows all of our troubles and wants to fix them. We just have to be willing to get help. Many people don’t want to ask for help, because they think the counselor will tell others, or it will cost too much. Neither of those have to be true. If you have some problems for which you would like some Biblical answers, give me a call. Everything is free and confidential.

One day while out visiting, I noticed the city workers picking up trash and working incredibly hard. I thank God for the work they do and how they have to deal with dogs like my dog “Buster” barking ferociously at them every Monday morning. I drove by a street and saw the city workers hard at work putting in a sidewalk, and not one of them was leaning on his shovel.

I know that people sometimes tease “government workers,” but I have been thoroughly impressed with what I have seen and wanted to publicly thank them for all the work they do.

Many times things are like that in life. It does get worse before it gets better. One way to start things getting better is to get as close to God as you can. Bible reading, prayer, and church attendance are great ways to build your relationship closer to God.

This Sunday is Easter Sunday, and it is a great time to start turning things around for good. We have an early service at 8:00 a.m., and a regular service at 10:45 a.m., with Sunday school between them. Why not let this Resurrection Sunday be the day you start letting the Lord make things better?