Welcome to Season 6 of the Excel Stillmore podcast. I am your host, Chris Emerson, and I am here to encourage you in your walk with the Lord, and I'm glad you've joined.

Our program continues to be sponsored by Cunningham Financial Group. John is a good friend and he's helped me and my family in everything

from stock and mutual fund investing to annuities, life insurance, and retirement planning.

I certainly commend him to you if you have needs in any of those areas. You can reach him at

205-326736-3-64. Thank you again for your ongoing encouragement and support. Let's get started.

Hey, how's your day going? I hope that it is well and that you have clearly seen already the ways that

God wants to not only bless you, but utilize you in his work. And if you are

beginning the morning by listening, thank you for that. I hope I can share some things to challenge

you and encourage you and get you to look for opportunities to engage in something today

openly and visible to others that demonstrates what the cross of Christ means to you. So here's a little

setup on my side of things. It is currently Friday at 3.45 p.m. I'm up here in my little cubbyhole

at the church building recording. That's just three days before the episode launches, which is actually

kind of unusual for me. I'll hit some creative stretches where I can record two or three

in a week and be well ahead, or usually by Monday or Tuesday, something's just begging to be recorded.

But honestly, this week, it was just a little tougher. So this morning, I was getting ready to

come to the office and I thought, you know, I'm sure I can find an old sermon or something with some things that can help, and maybe I'll just do that.

But instead, I think I made a better decision, and that was to head to Tyler, that's the

city nearest us, to do some visiting.

Just a brief side note, the best way to get out of any kind of a mental funk or lockdown

is to just go be with good people.

Just find some people you can talk to, encourage,

help, listen to. And before you know it, it becomes quite obvious that God is at work.

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