Are you praying for Celebration Sunday! We will soon be 2 years old as a church. God has been so good to us. He has blessed us beyond our wildest imaginations. What wonderful people He has given us in each of you! What servants you are and what a hunger you have for God and His word! What beautiful music and musicians! What a beautiful building He has given us!
I thank God for allowing us to be part of Vision Baptist Church. I am more than ever trusting Him and believing Him to do great things for His honor and glory.
Well if you were at Vision tonight you will have noticed that Betty and I were not there. We are in Fairwinds Baptist Church, Bear, Delaware. The pastor here is Carlo DeStefano. They supported our ministry for 19 years while we were in Peru. This is a great church and we have wonderful friends here.
We will be here preaching there Mission’s Conference through Sunday evening! Then we will fly back on Monday morning. I want to thank Tony Howeth for preaching tonight. I got word that we had 99 and that Brother Tony did a great job!
I preached a message called “Both and Willing” tonight and had a great time. I want to ask you to pray for me that God would use me.
Also pray for me so that this more solitary time will produce some great results for the ministry of our church. When I am away from all the movement I am always able to think, pray, plan, and work on the ministry and not so much in the ministry.
I love you guys so very much and sure hope that you will be praying and working to have God bless us greatly on Celebration Sunday and also Easter Sunday.
An efficiency expert was delivering a seminar on time management for a company’s junior executives. He concluded the session with a disclaimer: “Don’t attempt these task-organizing tips at home,” he said.
“Why not?” he was asked.
“Well, I did a study of my wife’s routine of fixing breakfast,” he replied, a little embarrassed. “I noticed she made a lot of trips between the refrigerator and the stove, the table and the cabinets, each time carrying only one item. So I asked her, ‘Honey, I notice that you make a lot of trips back and forth carrying one item at a time. If you would try carrying several things at once you would be much more efficient.’”
He paused.
“Did that save time?” one of the executives asked.
“Actually, yes,” the expert answered, “It used to take her twenty minutes to fix my breakfast. Now I get my own in seven minutes.”
“Many residents who have been residents of Forsyth County for a few years remember the honor bestowed on Forsyth County as one of the fastest growing counties in America based on U.S. Census information in 2004. Once again, Forsyth County is honored and recognized, this time as one of the richest counties in America.
Last month, Forbes magazine published a report that identified the top 100 richest counties in America based on median household income. Forsyth county ranked 13th with a median household income of $83,682. Forsyth was the only Georgia county to make the list.
The median income for neighboring counties is as follows: $47,486 for Dawson County; $49,321 for Fulton County; $60,537 for Gwinnett County; $60,896 for Cherokee County.
The top three counties were Fairfax County, VA with $100,318; Louden County, VA with $99,371; and Howard County, MD with $92,260. For more information, the full article is available at Forbes.com.
With Atlanta ranking fourth in the Best Cities for Jobs in 2008 list also published by Forbes, the future seems bright for county residents.”
Well that is an interesting article considering the last few posts on this blog. The family worshipping together, a quote on tithing, and a comment on being content are the last posts. Then this morning that article from Cumminghome.com came through. Why did God give us this much money? Why did God give us life? Everything we are or have is expected to be used for His honor and glory.
I am very privileged to live and work in Forsyth County. I love our church and I believe with all of my heart that we are poised to do great things for our God. I am excited to see what God has for us in the future.
I am reading a book called Lord, Change My Attitude Before its too late. John Pearson loaned it to me. I think that David Allison told him about it. I was just reading about Contentment. I have been under conviction for my sin of not being content with what God has given me.
The book by James MacDonald gives the following quote: Contentment is a satisfaction with God’s sufficient provision! It means to rest in what one already has and seek nothing more!
That made me want to think about being content and so here are some quotes that might interesting to you.
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” Epicurius
“We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” Frederick Keonig
“God may allow His servant to succeed when He has disciplined him to a point where he does not need to succeed to be happy. The man who is elated by success and is cast down by failure is still a carnal man. At best his fruit will have a worm in it.” A W Tozer
Our children need to learn how to act in church. They need to learn how to worship! Here are some practical ideas based on the article.
1. You as parents much be excited about getting to go to the worship service. You must fall in love with the Lord Jesus and love worshipping in Him! Your children know if you enjoy the worship service or not! They know if you anticipate the chance to worship God or if you are just going through the motions.
2. Your children are going to catch your spirit and form of worship. If you are excited and if you love God they will catch it. Remember it is more caught than taught!
3. Do you both sing with joy and listen hungrily to the Word of God?
4. Your children are old enough to sit still and listen in church. If they are old enough to go to school they are definitely old enough to be disciplined enough to sit still and listen during a regular length worship service.
5. Though your children will not understand everything they will learn a great deal. They will learn the songs, get used to the service, pick up things that are said, and learn how important worshipping God is to you.
6. The majority of people who get saved do so as children. Get your children in church. Teach them to sit still and listen. Pray that God will work in their hearts.
7. Help your children to get to know the pastor and other spiritual leaders.
8. Learn to talk about the services that you have just been in at the table with the family. Let them hear how excited you are. Let them hear how you anticipate the coming service. Talk about the music. Talk about the message and the invitation. Spend time making them know that you really love the church services.
9. Take your children to the bathroom before the service and tell them how excited you are for the family to worship God together without distractions.
10. Teach your children to participate in the service. They need to stand, sit, sing, read, take notes, etc. just like you do. That will help you to get them involved and give you a chance to discuss what God did during the service later at home.
11. Teach your children to sit up straight and still. Teach them not to fidget and crawl around. Teach them to pay attention to the service and not be looking at people, games, and other distractions.
12. Make sure your child has his or her own Bible, offering, bulletin, etc.
Be sure and read the article by John Piper. This little summary is by no means sufficient for you to see all that he has to say.
We were greatly blessed to have our newest member Mrs Angel Vensor. Angel and her two children, Mateo and Cheyene moved into the area recently. They have been a blessing over the past several weeks and we are excited to have them join the church. Angel’s husband is in the army and stationed in Germany for the next few weeks and then he will be going to Iraq.
I hope you will make Angel and the kids feel very welcome. Tonight we will make a video and send it to Major Stephen Vensor in Germany!
God has been so good to our church sending us the most wonderful people. Today we had 108 in Sunday School and 118 in the AM service. Lots of people were sick, traveling, etc but God let us have a new member, several visitors and a wonderful service.
In the following article Phil Cooke discusses how often politicians and preachers have a lack of substance in what they are saying and doing. We have become more interested in the theatrical and the flare than in what we are saying. Preachers are putting on a show too much. I do not want to be one of those preachers. I want to preach the word of God. I want to do it in such a way that you learn God and His word. I want to be a Bible preacher. Read the article. I am in no way trying to make any political statement but Mr Cooke does call us preachers on the carpet. I want to be sure that I am preaching like He wants me to. Again I will put bold and red in a few places to make sure that you read them!
I wrote earlier about what I believe to be a deliberate strategy by Barack Obama to use words to inspire and motivate his audiences rather than actually offer specific steps for actual change. That’s not a “for or against Obama” comment. It’s a comment on strategy. I say this, because it’s not that different from a lot of pastors out there today. They don’t really know the Bible that well, and have become motivational speakers more that actual teachers and pastors. In my book, “Branding Faith” I talk about the fact that when I visit many pastor’s offices today, I notice that the bookshelves that used to be filled with books on theology, doctrine, and church history, have now been replaced by the latest bestsellers on motivation and marketing.
I get that same feeling from Obama. He seems to be well spoken, and does a really great job of inspiring audiences. But up to now, he hasn’t really laid out too much in the way of specific steps for HOW he’s going to make this vague sense of “change” happen. Today, in the Wall Street Journal, columnist Peggy Noonan echoed the same sentiment. She writes:
“Barack Obama’s biggest draw is not his eloquence. When you watch an Obama speech, you lean forward and listen and think, That’s good. He’s compelling, I like the way he speaks. And afterward all the commentators call him “impossibly eloquent” and say “he gave me thrills and chills.” But, in fact, when you go on the Internet and get a transcript of the speech and print it out and read it–that is, when you remove Mr. Obama from the words and take them on their own–you see the speech wasn’t all that interesting, and was in fact high-class boilerplate. (This was not true of John F. Kennedy’s speeches, for instance, which could be read seriously as part of the literature of modern American politics, or Martin Luther King’s work, which was powerful absent his voice.)
Mr. Obama is magnetic, interacts with the audience, leads a refrain: “Yes, we can.” It’s good, and compared with Hillary Clinton and John McCain, neither of whom seems really to enjoy giving speeches, it comes across as better than it is. But is it eloquence? No. Eloquence is deep thought expressed in clear words. With Mr. Obama the deep thought part is missing. What is present are sentiments.
Our country can be greater, it holds unachieved promise, our leaders have not led us well. “We struggle with our doubts, our fears, our cynicism.” Fair enough and true enough, but he doesn’t dig down to explain how to become a greater nation, what specific path to take–more power to the state, for instance, or more power to the individual. He doesn’t unpack his thoughts, as they say. He asserts and keeps on walking.”
It’s a great strategy - for Barack or pastors - until you get found out. Real change is more than motivation or inspiration. While that’s an important part, without concrete steps to make that change happen, everything simply stays the same.
The following article is from a newspaper in London, England. I wanted you to read it so that you can be aware of the horrible consequences of an abortion. It is something when those who do not understand the spiritual side of abortion react in this way. An abortion is not a birth control method! It is not a simple surgical procedure. We must reach out to help those who are in trouble in this manner and those who have already suffered through this devastation. We must vote in a way to express that we are ardently opposed to the taking of any human life–most especially the helpless. I have bolded a few comments in the article so that you are sure to see some very important points!
An artist killed herself after aborting her twins when she was eight weeks pregnant, leaving a note saying: “I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a good mum.”
Emma Beck was found hanging at her home in Helston, Cornwall, on Feb 1 2007. She was declared dead early the following day - her 31st birthday.
Her suicide note read: “I told everyone I didn’t want to do it, even at the hospital. I was frightened, now it is too late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies: they need me, no-one else does.”
The inquest at Truro City Hall heard that Miss Beck had split up with her boyfriend, referred to as “Ben” after he “reacted badly” to the pregnancy.
She saw her GP before the termination, but missed an appointment at a hospital in Penzance. She then cancelled, but later turned up to an appointment at a clinic at Royal Cornwall Hospital in Treliske. The counsellor was on holiday so a doctor referred Miss Beck to a pregnancy counselling telephone service eight days before carrying out the abortion when she was eight weeks pregnant, the inquest heard.
The coroner, Dr Emma Carlyon, ordered that the identities of the doctor who performed the abortion and her lead consultant be kept secret.
The inquest heard that Sylvia Beck, the victim’s mother, wrote to the hospital after her daughter’s death, saying: “I want to know why she was not given the opportunity to see a counsellor.
“She was only going ahead with the abortion because her boyfriend did not want the twins.
“I believe this is what led Emma to take her own life - she could not live with what she had done.”
The doctor said: “I discussed Emma’s situation with her, and wrote on the form, ‘Unsupported, lives alone, ex-partner aware’.
“It is normal practice to give a woman the number for telephone counselling when a counsellor is not available.
“I am satisfied that everything was done to make sure that Emma consented to the operation.
She added: “We have since appointed more counsellors so there is more holiday cover.”
Katie Gibbs, Miss Beck’s GP, told the hearing: “She was extremely distressed by the abortion procedure, and I didn’t think she ever came to terms with it.
“She had a long history of anxiety and depression. Despite my best efforts, she was not willing to see a counsellor after the termination.”
Her boss at the clinic, said: “The time that can be given to a woman by a counsellor is limited in a busy hospital.
“I am satisfied everything was done to make sure Emma was consenting to surgery. I don’t feel there was any gap in the counselling service.
“There were lots of individuals who would be alert to any doubts. The comments made by Emma’s mother are not about a doctor I recognise.”
Mrs Beck told the court: “Emma was considered a talented artist, and sold a number of paintings.
“She was pleased when she became pregnant, but Ben reacted badly to the news.”
Recording a verdict of suicide, Dr Carlyon said: “It is clear that a termination can have a profound effect on a woman’s life.
“But I am reassured by the evidence of the doctors here.”
