Don’t forget to change your clocks Saturday for Daylight Savings Time. A lot of people prefer to do it right before they go to bed. I like to do it the first thing when I get up on Saturday morning. I would rather lose the hour during the daytime than during the night. Of course, I stay a little confused all day on Saturday…but I stay confused a lot of the time any way so what difference does that make?

Over the years I have had a number of different varmints find their way into our swimming pool. Snakes have not been uncommon. Frogs are regular guests. For some reason worms love to get into a pool to meet their deaths. But this morning was a first. I watched a beautiful mallard drake and hen enjoy the pool for a good long while this morning.

Yesterday I mentioned the couple that was baptized Sunday in the 10:45 worship service. There was another baptism at 9:15 that was equally moving. One of our faithful members (Tammy Edwards) came by with a friend of hers last week. Tammy had been witnessing to her friend and had led her to Christ.

One of the disadvantages of having people spread out over four worship services is that sometimes some truly incredible things happen in one service and people in three other services do not experience it. Such was the case yesterday.

FINALLY, it is beginning to feel like there is a little Spring in the air. The warmth and sunshine has been a welcome event around here. I believe almost everyone is ready for winter to be over and Spring to arrive. We should have shot that ground hog when he saw his shadow in February!

Last night was a good night at First Baptist Church. There are many things that take place and there is a place for everyone. My Bible study meets in the chapel at 7:00. We sing a few hymns (yep, I lead them...I know that's pretty bad but that's what you get), we pray together, and we study from God's Word. We have been studying in the Book of Philippians since last August.

If you have been a Southern Baptist very long at all there are some things that you know about very well. You know what the Cooperative Program is all about. For those who might not know it is our process for pooling our resources in order to carry the Gospel to the Nations. We decided a long time ago that we can do more together than we can do by ourselves.

I met last night with the Deacons of our church for our regular monthly meeting. You did a good job in selecting these men to serve you as Deacons. They are sincere and godly men and they love the Lord and this church. It is an honor to serve with them. Joe Walker is serving as the Chairman of the Deacons this year and James Buchanan is the Vice-Chairman. They are both doing an outstanding job.

This past Friday and Saturday we were able to host the Chamber of Commerce Home Show in our Fellowship Hall. We enjoy being a good neighbor to our city (and beyond) and this allowed us to provide a meeting space for hundreds of people that came through this Chamber of Commerce event. Our staff does a really great job in getting these things ready and then getting it prepared for our Sunday events.

Sunday should be a great day at First Baptist Church. Sunday morning I am going to be preaching from Luke 15. We will seek to find Biblical truths from a lost coin, a lost sheep, and a lost boy that will apply to our lives. The are some great principles in that passage that can be applied in many practical ways in our lives.

For those of you who noticed my typo in yesterday's E-Connect I offer this correction. I mistakenly typed that "The Lilly of the Valley" was written in 1991. We all know that is not correct. I had typed yesterday's E-Connect on my iPhone while out-of-town and it is easy to make typographical mistakes on that small keyboard (it is easy for me to make typographical mistakes on this large keyboard, too).

My meeting in Jacksonville has, as always, been very productive. There is something good about sitting in a room with 30 of America's best and brightest pastors. They ranged in age from 30-something into their 60's.

The Large Church Roundtable is meeting at the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida. There are pastors here from California, Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Illinois. I am the only pastor from Tennessee at the meeting this year. It is always good to be with these men. Good ideas flow and the dialogue is great.

We had a great day yesterday as we gathered in both the morning and the evening. I am so thankful to the Lord for what He is doing in our church. My prayer is that we would see Him do things in our hearts and lives that would carry us to new heights. Like many of you I am not interested in the status quo. I do not want to just go through the motions of life and ministry. I want to see God do something incredible in our community and in our church.

It has been wonderful to have sunshine for the past couple of days. You know that it has been cold when the temperature is in the 40’s and you really feel like it is warm outside! Whether it feels like it right now or not, Spring is just around the corner.