Can you believe it? Yesterday, it was New Year’s Day. Today, January is over! Wow! Psalm 90:12.

I spent five hours in the emergency room with Crystal last night. But she is feeling better today. Praise God.

This morning, the kids and I made our way to church without Crystal. But my mind was on her all day. It was kind of hard to concentrate. But the Lord helped me get through the day, as he is faithful to do.

Thanks for your prayers for Crystal.

5th Sundays are Missions Emphasis at Shiloh. I have been introducing the church to various missions efforts on 5th Sundays. But today we encouraged the members to continue to give

It was good to have our guests in worship with us today.

Dr. Mac Brunson and the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville are hosting their annual Pastor’s Conference this week. Several conference attendees joined us in worship today. It was good to have them with us. I pray that all the servants of God at this conference will go home refreshed, renewed, and refocused for the work ahead.

Our men’s chorus led us in musical praise today. It is good thing to have men leading in the corporate worship of God. I was encouraged by their service today, as I always am.

It was my privilege to lead the morning hymn today. A congregation lifting their voices in praise to God is one of the best and most important things that happen in corporate worship.

I preached my final message in my series through Philippians. The text was Philippians 4:20-23. I entitled the message, “What it Means to be a Saint.”

I think my 8 AM presentation of the message was much better than 10 AM.

If my count is correct, I today’s message was my 30th sermon in Philippians.

This study of Philippians has been edifying for me over the past year. I have learned a lot from my studies. And it seems like I kept running into the right text at the right time, as I faced various challenges in 2009. Praise God for his word! I hope and pray that the members of SMBC have found these messages to be enlightening, challenging, and encouraging.

For the record, I still believe in consecutive exposition through books of the Bible. There are those who are claiming that congregations cannot endure long series through Bible books. The trend toward unwillingness to endure long Bible series is not the reality at 1118 W. Beaver Street.

Praise God for those who were saved and added to the church today.

Was reminded today that I am not in Los Angeles anymore. Again.

I cannot wait to get back to pulpit next Sunday. I plan to begin a new series of messages entitled, “Following Christ: What it Means to Follow Jesus.”

It is weird to have no football on this evening. No. The Pro Bowl does not count.