Our small new mission church is looking for about 10 acres of land to one day build a church to the glory of God. I was riding down a road in Fayette County and saw a sign for almost a hundred acres for sale. It was in an area that in my opinion would be a great location for a church. Here is where our faith comes in.

I called the number on the sign and introduced myself and told the gentleman who I was and the name of or church and that we were looking for some land as a place upon which to one day build a church. He listened attentively and toward the close of our conversation, I asked him if possible the owners might think of donating about 10 acres for a church and taking it off their taxes.

I suddenly felt a coldness on the other end of the line and the real estate agent laughed in my face. I thanked him and hung up feeling hurt for the way I was treated but more so for him and the fact that what I was asking him to consider went right over his selfish head. There are times in the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that you will be treated rudely and even laughed at. This was one of those times. Listen to what the Scriptures say when Jesus was sending the disciples out to do His Father's business.

"Go your ways: behold I send you forth as lambs among wolves." I know this is true because I talked to one on the phone while looking for land. I know that God has a place for us and it will be in His timing or He wouldn't have given us the mission to start the church.

I have read and seen over and over where people were in tune with the Holy Spirit and when they saw a need, they couldn't wait to fill it. I also see our society changing. Now it appears to be "deny yourself nothing." "Get all you can and can all you get!" I hear on television that people want to retire at 30! How boring can it get! Retire at 30 and sit by the pool and waste the rest of their lives in pleasure? Jesus said in the Scriptures "Deny yourself, pick up your cross daily and follow me." It almost sounds "un-American" doesn't it? Deny ourselves? Are you kidding? "Give up 10 whole acres of precious land for a church? Think of all the extra money we could have with those precious 10 acres! We could get another car and let it sit in the driveway until we need it or another house on the lake!"

Yesterday another pastor and myself conducted a funeral service for a lady who would have been 97 her next birthday. Merle Lofton was a precious deacons wife at my first church that I pastored from 1972-1974 in Alvaton, Ga., about a 25-minute ride south of Fayetteville on Ga. Highway 85. As we conducted that funeral, I was reminded as I looked over those gravestones in the graveyard that all the people buried there died and left absolutely everything they owned to other people. I was also reminded that the "extra car" bought or the other "house on the lake" will one day rust out and the house fall down, but a church will live forever in the hearts of God's people and that will last forever!