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Encouragement Matters

(Author’s Note: This article was originally written for the July 2025 Newsletter of Palestine Methodist Church where the author serves as pastor.)
.189 batting average for the year. 1 hit in his last 35 at bats (.029 batting average.) That’s how LSU 3rd baseman Michael Braswell III entered the College World Series. Ice cold. Driving the struggle bus. However you want to say it, it was not good.

But instead of criticizing or booing him, LSU fans started a movement on social media to give Braswell a standing ovation when he walked up to the plate for his first at bat in the College World Series. He didn’t get a hit that game, but he made some great plays in the field that contributed to LSU’s two game sweep and eighth National Championship in college baseball. LSU fans continued to cheer for Braswell, and he finally got a hit in the eighth inning of the game in which LSU won the title.

When asked after the game what it meant for the LSU fans “to wrap their arms around him like that”, Braswell replied “It meant the world to me. Those are the moments you dream of. You don’t dream of hitting .180, but you dream of a whole fan base being behind you and supporting you and I couldn’t ask for a better fan base ever.” (Watch Braswell’s entire interview at https://www.youtube.com/shorts/b02iMJN0mnM.)

Encouragement makes a difference. What if we decided to be an encourager instead of a discourager? Upbeat instead of Debbie Downer? As you might guess, the Bible has quite a bit to say about encouragement. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” Ephesians 4:29 may be even stronger: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” These are only two of the hundreds of verses that encourage us to cling to our faith and to encourage others. The Bible is clear, God intends for us to be encouragers.

A daily devotion I read is titled “The Wake Up Call” published by Seedbed and written by John David Walt, a pastor in the Trinity Conference serving Gillett Methodist Church in Gillett, Arkansas. The theme for this summer’s Wake Up Call is the “Summer of Encouragement” with each devotion designed to encourage and uplift the reader or listener. By the way, you can receive the Wake Up Call for free every day in your email box by subscribing at https://seedbed.com/wakeupcall/. You can listen at the same address or at apple podcasts, spotify, or iheartradio. Just reading or listening to it has encouraged me.

Who do you know that could use a bit of encouragement? How might you do that? Maybe you don’t have to give them a standing ovation, but you can encourage them. Maybe a word, maybe a letter or a text, maybe just a hug. Be an encourager. Because encouragement matters. Just ask Michael Braswell III.

Striving to be an Encourager,
Kevin D. Smith

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Preparation Matters

Blackberry Candy. One of the author’s favorite daylilies.

(Author’s note: This article was originally written for the June Newsletter of the Palestine Methodist Church in Ball, LA where the author serves as pastor.)
I admit it. I have a flower fixation. I suppose as fixations go, flowers are one of the best. I come by it honestly. My grandfather had a large vegetable garden and grew beautiful roses. My mom and dad grew roses and many other flowers and plants. Since moving, I have planted caladiums and impatiens, hung ferns on the front porch, and built beds for my favorite flower, daylilies.

But it was a lot of time and work. First, I killed the grass and weeds. Then, I cleared the space of competing plants. Tilled the soil. Next, I raked out the grass, weeds, roots, and other impediments to growth. Added improvements (cow manure) to the soil. Placed edging to protect the plants and keep weeds and grass out. Finally, the soil is ready to plant. Now, all I need is time, water, sunshine, and a bit of fertilizer.

Preparation matters. Without proper preparation, the plants stand little chance to grow. With proper preparation, I hope they will thrive. In the secular world, the saying goes “to fail to plan is to plan to fail.” If you were a scout, you know the Scout motto “Be Prepared.” As I was working on my flower beds, I thought, what would happen if I put this much preparation into my spiritual life? Do I put as much preparation into my spiritual life as I put into flowers and plants? As much preparation as I put into my job and career? As much preparation as I put into my fishing trip or hunting trip or other types of recreation?

How can we be spiritually prepared? Do we spend time in God’s Word regularly, perhaps with the help of a devotional book such as the Upper Room, Our Daily Bread, or a number of online devotionals? Do we pray regularly? Do we attend worship on Sunday? Are we a part of a small group such as a Sunday School class? All of these things and more can help us be spiritually prepared for God to grow and move in our lives.

As David prepared to face Goliath the giant, he told King Saul “Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.” 1 Samuel 17:36. Did you hear that? David was prepared to face the giant because God had already helped him defeat the lion and the bear. What challenges have you overcome? What lion and bear have you defeated? Perhaps God is preparing you to face a giant.

Preparation matters in the garden, in life, and in our spiritual lives. If we aren’t doing the preparation, then we cannot expect the fruit or the flowers. But when we prepare, we open the door for God to bless us and to help us defeat whatever giants we face.


Preparing for Growth,
Kevin D. Smith

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Friendly or Hospitable?

Author’s Note: This article was originally written for the April 2025 Newsletter for Palestine Methodist Church, Ball, LA. To view or receive an electronic copy of our newsletter, please follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/palgmc or send us an email to palgmc@gmail.com. You can receive a mailed copy of the newsletter by contacting us at (318) 640-9024 or contacting us at palgmc@gmail.com. Thank you for reading!

Before I even came to Palestine, I was told about how friendly this church is. I have already discovered for myself that you are one of the friendliest churches I have served. Being friendly is great, it is wonderful, it is necessary. But are we hospitable?

What is the difference between being friendly and being hospitable? Boy, I am glad you asked! Being friendly is building relationships with people we already know and love, i.e. friends and family. Hospitality is being welcoming to and building relationships with people we don’t know, i.e. strangers. Many churches are friendly, fewer are truly hospitable.

Why should we be hospitable and intentionally build relationships with people we don’t know? We are all children of God. What if we treated every person we met as a precious, valued, child of God? How might it change us? How might it change the world?

When we are hospitable, we never know with whom we might be interacting . The final chapter of the book of Hebrews is subtitled “Concluding Exhortations” in my Bible. It contains several short pieces of advice to the reader including this one in Hebrews 13:2 “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” When we show hospitality to strangers, we never know with whom we are interacting. What if we treated every stranger we met as an angel? How might it change us? How might it change the world?

How can we become a more hospitable (not just friendly) church? Again, I’m glad you asked and here’s a few ideas: (1) Practice the rule of ten. The rule of ten is that you greet everyone within ten feet of you, whether you have never met them or have known then for many years. Using the rule of ten almost assures that everyone is greeted at least once. (2) Practice the rule of three. Statistics say that guests are usually the first to leave, usually within the first three minutes. The rule of three states that you spend the first three minutes after service intentionally looking for guests before speaking to people you already know. (3) Be a first friend. A first friend intentionally watches for new guests, people attending for the first time, greets them, builds a relationship with them, maybe sits with them, introduces them to other people and invites them back to church.

Being friendly is a great start. It is not an ending point. Our call as followers of Jesus is to be hospitable and welcoming not only to people we know, but to strangers and people we don’t know. My prayer is that Palestine would not only be the friendliest church in the area, but also the most hospitable to any child of God who attends our services or walks in our doors.

In Christ’s Love,
Kevin D. Smith

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Inward Qualities are More Important than Outward Qualities

(Author’s Note: I have been preaching a message series from 1 Samuel during the summer of 2024 at Grace Methodist Church of Ruston. This article is an excerpt from the June 23, 2024 message)

1 Samuel 16:7 makes the telling point that inward qualities are more important than outward ones. “The Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord sees not as a man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

There’s an old saying: “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.” And that’s too bad, because first impressions generally do not reveal inward qualities. The anointing of David demonstrates to us that we are to look deeper into each other than to see only what’s on the surface.
As Jesse presented his sons to the prophet, Samuel thought ““Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.” (16:6) “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (16:7)

I can only imagine Samuel’s confusion as the last son was presented and God said “no, not him”. He turned to Jesse and said, “Is this all?” There was one more son; he was out in the fields taking care of the sheep. Notice that Jesse hadn’t even thought to bring him in. He certainly wasn’t king material. His dad and brothers knew that. But Samuel was insistent and so he was brought into the house and suddenly this young nobody became somebody.

It’s hard for us to understand exactly why David would have been such an unlikely candidate for king, but let me give you three reasons to help paint the picture. First of all, David had an undistinguished family tree. His grandmother was an immigrant and among his ancestors was a woman almost executed for adultery and a prostitute. What kind of kingly lineage was that? His bloodline just wasn’t right. The second thing that made him such an unlikely candidate was that he was in the wrong place in the birth order. He was the youngest son. How many are youngest children? You know what it’s like to live in the shadow of your older siblings.

In David’s day and age your birth order determined your lot in life. The youngest child had a very unlikely prospect for success. The oldest son when he was of age would begin working with his father on the farm as soon as he was old enough to help or tend the sheep. But, when the next oldest son became old enough to help, the older son might leave home to start his own farm, learn a trade, or get married. He could decide to stay on the farm or not. This succession would continue until the last son would ultimately become the family’s shepherd and farm hand because there was no one to come behind him to replace him. David’s place in life was already determined. He had a job and apparently was good at that job from what we’re told later on in his life.

The fact is if we had been living in the farmhouse next door to David’s family on the Judean hillside, we may not have even known the name of David’s youngest son. His dad didn’t even think of including him until Samuel asked him if there were any more. Jesse rubbed his beard and said, “Oh, yeah, there’s my youngest. Almost forgot about him.” So fathers, don’t forget to present all your sons when the prophet comes to visit.

Samuel was so in tune with God that he listened to His will in selecting David to be anointed as king. And, arguably, David was Israel’s greatest king. The story of David is a story of right seeing. It’s a story which challenges us to look beyond outward appearances to a person’s heart and character. God saw something in David that no one else had seen. The Hebrew word that is used in the text to describe how Samuel looked at Jesse’s sons implies that he looked but didn’t really see. Inward qualities are more important than outward.