We all need a little help every now and then, and sometimes it comes from the most unexpected places. It might be the Walmart employee who wipes down our cart before handing it off to us, or the hardware store salesperson with curbside service so we can buy the shovel to work in our garden, or even a picture like this to lift our spirits.

Let’s face it. Times are tough…uncertain…maybe even a tad bit discouraging. Chances are, if you’re like me, a little spirit-lifter won’t hurt.

But before we get to that, maybe we need to understand where discouragement comes from. The following story explains it well.

It was advertised that the devil was putting his tools up for sale. When the day of the sale came, each tool was priced and laid out for public inspection. And what a collection it was! Hatred, envy, jealousy, deceit or pride…the inventory was treacherous. Off to one side was a harmless-looking tool priced higher than all the rest, even though it was obviously more worn than any other tool the devil owned. “What’s the name of this tool?” asked a customer. “That,” the devil replied, “is discouragement.” The customer asked, “But why have you priced it so high?” The devil smiled and explained, “Because discouragement is more useful to me than all the others. I can pry open and get inside a man’s heart with that tool when I can’t get near him with any other. It’s badly worn because I use it on almost everyone, since so few people know it belongs to me.”

Discouragement does not come from God. It comes from you-know-who, and it shows up in many forms: rejection; impatience; anger; sarcasm; lack of energy; ingratitude; fear; blame, etc. The list is endless. Some people go to bed, put the covers over their heads, and try to sleep it off. Others put on a happy face and play super-Christian. (“Why no, nothing is wrong. Praise God, I’m fine.”). But those who seem to deal with it best understand the source of their discouragement and turn to the One who can make a difference. They find the answer in Ps. 42:11 (MSG)

Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—

soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.

He’s my God.

Our eyes cannot be focused on ourselves and God. When we need a little pick-me-up, it would be nice to have someone pull us from the front and push us from the back, like the toddler in the picture. But there’s a better solution: Begin praising God for His goodness and His blessings, an easy thing to do when we realize Who initiates our “lifting.” As Ps. 30:30 says, I will lift You up, O Lord, for You have lifted me up.

“Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.” Isaiah 44:24

My life feels like an HGTV show. Our church has been going through a building expansion and remodeling. We recently added a new Family Life Building which is not complete. Construction is currently underway on the interior. The church kitchen and a couple of Sunday School classrooms are torn apart in various stages of remodel. New built-in bookcases are being added to my office. Everywhere I turn, I am tripping over tools and lumber.

At home, it is no different. When our family moved to Southeast Kansas, we purchased a Victorian house which is over 130-years-old. My wife, Amanda, watched a couple of episodes of “Fixer Upper” and somehow the thought got into her pretty head that I have all the skills to renovate our house. Last week, Amanda came into where I was working and said, “Since you have been working on this house, I have really grown closer to the Lord.” I said, “Is that because the beauty of my work makes you think of heaven?” She said, “No, not heaven. Your work makes me think of the other place.”

The problem is our house is crooked – out of level. You can see it in the floors, the ceilings, the roofline, the door jambs, even the window frames. Since I am trying to keep as much of the original materials as possible, it is difficult to use reclaimed wood which is twisted and broken.

I have always admired how a master carpenter can take pieces of salvaged wood and out of them build something beautiful. If you’re human and living on this planet, pieces of your life are twisted and broken. Chances are you have seen parts of your life break apart – dreams, relationships, promises, and hearts. We’ve all experienced broken pieces. Our lives need the hands of a carpenter.

I don’t believe that it was merely coincidence that the Lord Jesus Christ was a carpenter. After all, since the beginning of time, He has been a builder. His hands built the planet on which we stand. His hands built the sky on which we gaze. His hands even built us in the womb. And those same hands that built the universe can take all the twisted and broken pieces of your life and build until your life turns out to be something beautiful.

Your part is to let Him have all the pieces. Bring to Jesus all your brokenness – your sorrows, losses, frustrations, hurts, and wounds. Give Him your broken dreams, relationships, promises, and broken hearts – all of it. Put them all into the Carpenter’s hands. You don’t have to struggle with your life. You can put your life into Jesus’ hands because His hands are the hands of a carpenter. He is the Master Carpenter of life. So, let Him be the Carpenter of your life.

The point is: Today, give the Lord any part of your life or heart that is or has been broken. Then let the Master Carpenter redeem the broken pieces and build your life into something beautiful.

Let Jesus be your Carpenter, and you will be sure it’s built right.

James Collins is the senior pastor of First Southern Baptist Church where “Drive-In” Church will be held tomorrow at 11 am. For more information, go www.fortscottfsbc.com.

When I read that 10,000 New York Covid-19 victims had died, I could not stop thinking about who logs the names of the deceased and tries to find their relatives. About how long the bodies could be stored in semi-truck freezer vaults. About what kind of burial they would receive. To think that this was playing out 1200 miles from where we live in the Midwest seemed unfathomable. A little research led me to Hart Island, the largest municipal cemetery in the United States and burial ground for over one-million deceased.

Since New York law does not allow for the cremation of unclaimed human remains, the mass-grave site near the Bronx is where “indigent,” Coronavirus New Yorkers (who were not claimed from a morgue within 15 days of their death) are now being buried. City officials hope that when this virus ends, families will retrieve their bodies.

Fresh trenches for the deceased are dug with backhoes in a large pit holding 150 pine boxes that are stacked three-high in two long rows. Hazmat-suited workers lift coffins, some with a name and others with “unknown” written in permanent marker and a carved grave number on the lid.

After April 3rd, paid landscaping contractors buried the bodies. For years before then, jail inmates had the unenviable job. What I found most inspiring was that these inmates, themselves knowing the stigma of being “indigents,” had found ways to honor the dead when they asked correction officers to switch the portable speaker from drum and bass to Mozart.

According to the “Washington Post,” Saxon Palmer, a former inmate who spent four months at the end of 2019 burying bodies on Hart Island, shared how he and his fellow grave diggers dignified the bodies they were burying. “As they moved the coffins out of the coroner’s truck, they’d say ‘rest in peace’ or draw a cross on the pine box, or say goodbye. We’d say, ‘Mr. Rothman, this is going to be your last trip here, we’re going to make it easy for you, nice and slow,’” Palmer said. “We just had a conversation with the coffins in a kind of gentle way.”

I admit, up to that point, I had been rankled that several articles used the word “indigent” to describe the dead, knowing that in God’s kingdom, there is no such thing. No one deserves that label. But then I thought, maybe that’s why the inmates showed such compassion. They knew, first-hand, what it was like to be rejected. They knew, first-hand, what it was like to be treated with no dignity. Perhaps some of them even knew what it was like to be innocent yet be victimized by things out of their control. For some of the deceased, it might have been the first time they had been shown that kind of respect.

So, what do we take from this? We need to see others as God does, He who has “crowned us with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:5), in spite of how we all are sinners and fall short of His glory. (Ro. 3:23) If He can dignify us (yes, you and me), the undignified, maybe it’s time we learn from the “indigent” inmates. Saxon Palmer gave us a great place to start. Maybe we just need to “make it easy” for others less fortunate than us by striking up a conversation “in a kind of gentle way.”

Before it’s too late.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jeremiah 29:11

During the COVID-19 quarantine, I have been going to work each day. However, my wife and kids have pretty much been stuck at home. It seems like they are developing “cabin fever.” Over the weekend, they seemed to be a little cranky especially when I started rationing the remaining toilet paper. They became even more upset when I started cutting their hair. By the way, my wife looks great with a bowl haircut.

In order to alleviate their boredom, I put the kids to work. For the past few weeks, they have been peeling old wallpaper and painting. That seemed to make them even angrier. Since they didn’t like painting, I made them clean out the garage. Guess what? They hated that too.

Because we couldn’t go anywhere, I did my best to come up with a stay-at-home activity the whole family would love. I tried boardgames. I quickly discovered that kids who have spell-check on all their electronic devices are easy to beat at Scrabble. After my forty-second consecutive Scrabble victory, they got frustrated and quit.

Since all the churches are closed, every preacher in America is now a televangelist. So, I thought it would be fun to check out some of the other pastors on YouTube, and I made my wife and kids watch with me. The experience was, well, interesting… If your pastor wears skinny jeans when he shouldn’t, you might want to get a new pastor. If your pastor says his favorite hymn is Madonna’s “Like a Prayer,” you might want to get a new pastor. If your pastor is over 30 years old and frosts the tips of hair, you might want to get a new pastor. If your pastor gets more theology from Joel Osteen books than the Bible, you might want to get a new pastor.

Anyway, after watching three or four bad internet preachers, my wife and kids were really agitated. My ten-year-old son, John said, “I’m so bored. I just want to go someplace. I just wish this mess was over and the world would reopen.” I looked at John and said, “I do too, son.”

My family, like most people today, just wants to go somewhere. Right now, it feels like the world has stopped, but that’s not really the case. Every second the earth is moving 18.5 miles in its journey around the sun. Every tick of the clock, you are 18.5 miles away from where you were before the last tick. If you count to 10, you are about 200 miles away from the place you were when you started counting. The earth is always going places. Since you are on the earth, you are always going places too.

Not only is that true physically, but it’s also true spiritually. Every soul is moving either toward God or away from God. You are going someplace. You are meant to go to heaven. That is why God says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you… thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11). God wants to bring you to a good place. Since you’re going places anyway, make sure you’re always moving toward God and not away from Him.

The point is: Even under lock-down, you are going places. It is impossible to stay put. But you have a choice on your direction. You can either move toward, or away from God.

Where do you think you’re going?

James Collins is the senior pastor of First Southern Baptist Church where “Drive-In Church” will be held this Sunday. Find out more information at www.fortscottfsbc.com.

After this Covid-19 virus passes, I hope we learn a few things.

I hope we learn the importance of saving. Proverbs 21:20 makes that clear. The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down. According to Bankrate.com, more than one in five Americans don’t save any of their annual income. For those who do, twenty percent have put back only five percent or less of what they make. What would have happened if our government had not bailed us out? My widowed mother raised three of us on minimum wage. The first check she wrote each month was her tithe. If she did not have enough money to purchase something, we went without, including a television and a car. We rented until she saved the cash to buy a home. She never had a credit card. Had this virus hit when we were young, we probably would have been much better off than some of my friends’ families….you know, the ones with the beautiful homes, the Country Club memberships, and a huge amount of credit card debt.

I am grateful that we live in America where Uncle Sam is looking after us. My Hispanic friend from Mazatlán recently sent an email sharing that, since the Mexican government is doing NOTHING to bail out businesses or individuals, people are figuring out ways to help each other. This is what she shared: “Buenos Dias Sra Patty…By the fishermen monument, there is an area where are many little boats called pangas. The fishermen took their nets and went to the ocean, they got so many fish, a lot and they asked people to take it to eat. This was wonderful. At the department stores, there is a table with a note. If you need something take it, if you could donate something leave it. I saw people taking two things off the table. I love to see it too. By my place 3 days ago a lady was passing by yelling.Tamales, 2 per person for free. Senora Patty, this kind of things make my heart feel good.

Proverbs 6:6-8 encourages us to learn our saving habits from the lowly ant: “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.” The Bible has much to say about saving. For one, our money is not ours; it is God’s. In times such as this, how nice would it be to be able to help our neighbors because we had “stored” some provisions and not lived above our means? Instead, I’ve met too many Americans who save only to have a cushy life when their working days are over. A leisurely “Retirement” becomes their payoff, yet even Jesus admonished the person whose goal was to save in order to have a comfy life instead of taking care of real needs as a thank-you for God’s provisions.

In Luke 12: 16-21, Jesus shares this parable: The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, “What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?” And he said, “I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’” But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Retirement for Christians should not be self-centered. It should be the time when we devote ourselves to serving others with our time and resources.

Please don’t get me wrong. I am grateful that we live in the United States where businesses can be saved and families can eat because of the bail-out. I just hope that when this virus is over, we all might rethink our financial priorities and learn from the lowly ant…the wise, working, lowly ant.

“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”

Acts 20:28

On August 21, 1973, a little girl named Christy was born. There were costs attached to her from the moment she was born. Her father had to work two jobs to pay the hospital bill. As she grew from a baby to a little girl, she cost even more. Her dresses and shoes were expensive as well as the doctor visits through all those childhood diseases.

Christy was even more expensive during her school and teen years. She needed dresses for formals and proms. Her parents paid for her first car. The cost for insurance for that car was outrageous. When she went to college, there were college expenses not listed in the catalog. Tuition was bad enough, but there were also costs associated with books, campus parking fees, rent, and groceries. In her senior year of college, Christy met Josh. They fell in love and got married. The wedding cost a tremendous amount of money. Five months after her marriage, Christy was diagnosed with cancer. She was dead within a year. She has not cost a penny since the day her family walked away from her grave.

If a church is alive, there will be a cost. The more alive a church is, the greater the cost. Only a dead church, like a dead child, no longer has a cost.

What price are you willing to pay for your church? I’m not talking about a financial cost, although that may be part of it. Right now, there is a battle in the United States over the church. Many government officials are using the COVID-19 crisis to push an ungodly agenda. It is like a cancer trying to kill the church. Governors in most states have issued orders restricting churches. One governor ordered police to go through church parking lots, write down license plate numbers, and issue fines to the attendees. People attending a “drive-in” church service in Greenville, Mississippi were given $500 citations. Your telling me you can “drive-in” to McDonalds and get a Quarter Pounder, but you can’t “drive-in” to church and worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

The question comes down to the definition of “essential.” Only “essential” services can remain open. When the coronavirus hit, I called and emailed several federal, state, and local elected officials and I asked them, “Is church essential?” Most of them refused to answer. In my way of thinking, not answering was an answer of, “No.” However, one local politician that I spoke with on the phone answered with a flat-out, “No! Churches are not essential.” We are living in a time where liquor stores, marijuana dispensaries, and abortion clinics, are considered essential, but the blood-bought church is not.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want anyone to get sick. I believe that you should take all precautions to maintain health and safety. But the U.S. Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Yet we are seeing that happen and it’s being justified as a public health issue. When a Governor orders that anyone going to church is a criminal that can be punished by jail time and fines, that ought to cause concern for all Americans. That is unconstitutional.

The point is: To keep the church alive, there will be a cost. Jesus paid a price for the church. It cost His precious blood. Since Jesus paid such a cost for His church, I, for one, am not willing to sit by and watch her be killed. I will pay any price to keep the church alive.

Is church essential? Jesus thought so, and so do I.

What about you?

James Collins is the senior pastor of First Southern Baptist Church where “Drive-In Church” will be held this Sunday. Find out more information at www.fortscottfsbc.com.

The following is a verbatim Facebook posting by Joe Hanson, although my research did not show the originator of these words: 

In three short months, just like He did with the plagues of Egypt, God has taken away everything we worship. God said, “You want to worship athletes, I will shut down the stadiums. You want to worship musicians, I will shut down Civic Centers.  You want to worship actors, I will shut down theaters. You want to worship money, I will shut down the economy and collapse the stock market. You don’t want to go to church and worship Me, I will make it where you can’t go to church”

“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Maybe we don’t need a vaccine, Maybe we need to take this time of isolation from the distractions of the world and have a personal revival where we focus on the ONLY thing in the world that really matters. Jesus.

I understand the author’s intent, but I have a different take on God using this virus as payback. We are naïve if we deny that in our generation, God has been dismissed, even though His first commandment lets us know that He has no intention of being given a standby role: “Thou shall have no other gods before me.” The real problem is that many Christians have a slew of delights, and Jesus does not top that list.

Yes, God has allowed this pandemic evil, but He did not initiate it or delight in it. He wants us to turn it into good. I am hearing of families who, for the first time in years, are eating together. If you’re like me, your email is filled with clever toilet paper slogans designed to make you laugh and prayer chain opportunities to bring you to your knees.

A group in Kansas City is making yard signs, thanking medical personnel and placing them along the entryways to hospitals, nursing homes and emergency facilities. Some contain scriptures, all to encourage and let these people know they are valued.

My dear friend Lael joined two other South Carolina neighbors on Palm Sunday as they sang together from their back yards and balconies. She admitted they did not sound like the YouTube balcony Italian opera singers, “but we raised our voices and hearts together.”

A relative is making face masks, using the pipe cleaners her neighbor shared with her, and Juliette, a friend from Massachusetts, organized an on-line talent competition as a fun distraction for local children and their families. She recruited judges for four categories (cooking, music, art and entertainment). Granted, her idea was far outside my realm of creativity, but children and parents were blessed because of her giftedness.

In California, the breakfast group of Howard’s, Dave’s buddy, has donated enough money for their favorite diner to supply lunch to the local firehouses and sheriff’s offices for a week. And this past Monday night, Fort Scott High School spring sports’ senior athletes and coaches turned on their stadium lights and stood outside their facilities (six-feet apart) while drivers in vehicles paraded by, honking their horns, as a sign of unity.

I could list many more examples of people turning this horrific evil into good, but the point is this: We can blame God, or we can blame ourselves for turning from Him and choose to be a blessing to others.

You and I both know which will help give God back His rightful place of honor.

The Bottom Line by Pastor Jimmy Tucker

Celebrating the resurrection of Christ will not be the same as last year. If you’re like me, you’ll be secluded in your home, holed up against the corona virus. The traditional Resurrection Sunday can be observed in a very individual way. You may watch a service online and try to keep the traditions, or you can let all the traditions go and worship the risen Savior individually as the Holy Spirit leads you.

A childhood Easter tradition is the egg hunt which has to do with Easter baskets, candy, chocolate bunny rabbits, and colored eggs. This tradition is great fun, but has little to do with the true message of the Resurrection of Jesus.

What is the true message of the resurrection that we remember this time of year? “Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance” (John 20:1 NLT). Mary Magdalene was honored to be the first to see Jesus after His resurrection. It was announced to her, individually, and then Jesus Himself told her to go and tell the others. “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17 NLT). 

This is the true message of the resurrection for all of us. Go, and tell others the good news of Jesus: His Father is your Father and His God is your God — that Jesus is here and alive! This is the story that has changed the world. The wonderful story of Jesus and His love is still changing hearts on an individual basis.

What makes the resurrection of Jesus meaningful to you? Is it the sunrise service or the breakfast that follows? Is it the squeals of delight as your toddler finds another plastic egg filled with candy? Is it the message from your pastor or singing in the church cantata that you’ve rehearsed for weeks? Maybe it’s none of these things. Maybe they all leave your heart dry and unchanged.

I suggest getting alone with your Bible and reading the beautiful story again, meditating on the eternal truth of Jesus’ resurrection and His love for you. Let it soften and change your heart. He will not disappoint you, but will meet you where you are.

The story of Jesus did not end with the crucifixion. Praise God! His story is still being written as He works in the lives of those who believe. He arose from the dead to give us hope for the resurrection unto eternal life. He wants the whole world to know about it. He wants to live in each of us and change us from the inside out.

Bottom line: Don’t let traditions take the place of the individual life-changing message of our risen Lord and Savior.

Pastor Jimmy Tucker

(620) 223-1483

Diamond Community Church

“ For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

Preston asked, “Did you know that sometimes dead bodies will move?” I answered his question with a question when I said, “What are you talking about?” My friend Preston, who is a funeral director, said, “Sometimes bodies will have muscle contractions after they are dead. Sometimes a hand will quiver. Sometimes a face will twitch. Sometimes an eye might even blink.”

Over the years, I have been around a lot of dead bodies. In my ministry, I have been with people as they took their final breaths and I have preached hundreds of funerals. I have seen a lot of dead bodies, but I have never seen one move. So, I looked at Preston with a look of doubt.

Preston said, “Once, I was preparing a body, and I had to reach down under the table to get something. When I bent over, the hand of the dead man fell on my shoulder.” “Be honest with me, what did you do?” I asked. “I screamed my lungs out.” I said, “If that would have happened to me, there would have been two dead bodies!”

Even though a dead body may still twitch and move, dead bodies don’t come back to life. However, I have a personal relationship with a dead body that came back to life. The Lord Jesus Christ came back from the dead. Jesus is not shut up in a hole. He is sitting up in Heaven. Jesus is not rotting in a tomb. He is reigning on a throne. Jesus is not wearing grave clothes. He is robed in King’s Clothes. Jesus is alive.

This Sunday is Easter. I prefer to call it “Resurrection Sunday” because the resurrection is a vital component of the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that the Gospel has three parts. First, Jesus Christ died on the cross for sinners. Second, He was buried. Third, He was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures. The true Gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and when you rest your faith in the Gospel – in the Person and work of Jesus Christ – you experience a new birth and have a personal relationship with a Holy God.

The point is: The resurrection of Jesus Christ sets Christianity apart from all the world religions. Other religious leaders died, but only One came back from the grave and is alive forevermore. There is no other religious leader in history who was killed, who was buried, who rose from the dead and left behind an empty tomb. Not one. Confucius, Buddha, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, Charles Taze Russell, L. Ron Hubbard, Ellen G. White – none of them ever died, was buried, and rose from the dead. A dead man can save no one. Salvation by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ is the only way.

Jesus is alive.

Do you personally know and boldly proclaim the living Savior?

Do you know my Jesus?

Get to know Him. Your eternal life depends on it.

James Collins is the senior pastor of First Southern Baptist Church where “Drive-In Church” will be held this Sunday. Find out more information at www.fortscottfsbc.com.