Stop And Smell The Roses,

Grant Abercrombie, Shelley Hall and Kitty Collingsworth were celebrating birthdays Sunday at Mill Creek Baptist Church. Beautiful zinnias adorned the alter. Wayne Johnson opened our worship service with prayer. Special prayers were requested for Cindy, Madge, Linda's brother, Jim Mathews, Grant, the Heath baby, and safe travel prayers for some. We will have business meeting at 7 p.m. next Sunday.

Linda Abercrombie shared the devotional, "Stop and Smell the Roses," with scripture from Ecclesiastes 4:6. Sometimes we get so busy with our to-do lists that we forget to stop and relax in the midst of our so-much-to do lives. We are not promised another day or minute. Take time to stop and smell the roses and thank God for another day and minute of life.

We recognized our fathers and remembered those we have lost. We thank God for their guidance, love and example. Mitchell Lett and Tyrel Lett served as ushers and collected our tithes and offerings.

Congregational hymns included "Heavenly Sunlight" and "I Am Resolved" with Becky at the piano, and we were blessed with special hymns of praise from Jerry and Linda Abercrombie who sang "Love Lifted Me" and Karen Gardner who sang "How Great Thou Art."

Before beginning God's message, Brother Mark Hall led us in the memory verse from last week, Psalm 23:6, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Brother Mark's sermon, "Doing the Right Thing," was taken from Deuteronomy 6:18. "And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the Lord swore to your fathers." He told us that Jesus came so we may have life and have it more abundantly. "We all know people who live miserable lives. There is no reason to live a miserable life. Just follow the Book of Life. It shapes our lives. It is never too late to live a better life. Jesus says it will be well with us if we will do what is right and we will live a better life."

Brother Mark referred to a quote he had heard. "Wrong doesn't cease to be wrong just because the majority approves of it." He said he has found out that the closer he is to God, the more he is able to see what is right and what is wrong. When he drifts away from God is when the line between right and wrong gets kind of blurry.

Brother Mark referred to some verses in Colossians 3:12-25 about the character of the new man that he refers to as the "Rules for Right Living" that are our responsibility. "When you can live that, you won't have to worry about whether what you are doing is right or wrong. The man that walks with God knows what direction he is going and he is going in the right direction. In other words, we should live every day as if it were our last. We should do every job as if we were the boss. Drive as if all the other vehicles on the highway were police cars and treat everyone else as if he were you."

Brother Mark presented us with the Right or Wrong test. If you are ever in a situation where it is hard to tell what's right from wrong, ask yourself these four questions:

• If my mom, dad or pastor did this, would it be OK with me?

• Would I still do this if everyone in town knew about it tomorrow?

And the two most important questions :

• Could I pray and ask God to bless what I am about to do?

• Would it be OK if I was doing this when Jesus comes?

"The best inoculation for doing right and avoiding wrong is knowing your Bible. Isaiah 5:20 says, 'Woe to those who call evil good and the good evil.' We are living in that time right now."

"Here is how you know that you are in danger of this woe. When we start preferring our own reasoning over what the Bible says and when we spend more time justifying in our minds what we are doing than seeing what God has to say about it, we are probably in danger of doing wrong. We look for shortcuts to happiness. Our lust for immediate gratification and pleasure makes us see evil as good."

When your desire to be right before God outweighs your desire to have what you want, then you know you are on your way to knowing right. Does doing what is right really cost us? God has a way of saying "Atta boy," and that is priceless. Do we always do right? We wish we did. Brother Mark read Romans 7:14-25 and said, "As Christians, we talk about doing right. As a Christian we want to do God's will, but as a man of flesh sometimes we fail. That's why we thank God for Jesus. We are not worthy, but Jesus is. We always slip up and that's why we need Jesus."

"Our flesh gets us in trouble on earth and sometimes we fail. We carry a load of guilt. Every one does, but Jesus takes the guilt away. We want to be known as someone who does right before God, but sometimes we will fail, and that's why we need Jesus. We will never do right or be right until we have Jesus. Our faith in Jesus Christ helps us with the right."

Our hymn of invitation was "Near the Cross," and Wayne gave the benediction. We invite you to worship with us at Mill Creek Baptist Church on Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. Sunday school is at 10.

Everyone is welcome.