Archive for December, 2008
I guess this will be the last post this year! God has been so good to us. We have seen Him work in so many ways, souls saved, baptisms, growth, prayers answered, needs met, etc. It has been a good year!
I know that some of you have been through some hard times but God has gotten you through. Remember Matthew 6:34-sufficient to the day is the evil there of. All you need to do is trust God for today and let tomorrow take care of itself.
I fully expect 2009 to be our best year. I am looking forward to all that God is going to do. I am asking Him to allow us to see our attendance double and do greater things than ever before.
I want all of you to know that I love you very much and thank God for the opportunity to be the pastor of Vision. I can’t imagine being any where else.
Well as the year ends Betty and I are sitting here enjoying our last evening together this year and getting ready for the Summit.
Happy New Year to all of you!
December 31 2008 | General | No Comments »
Genesis 37:30 And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?
Sometimes it seems that we just can’t get straight what ought to be our concern or our priority! This verse is found in the story where Reuben comes back to find that they have taken Joseph out of the pit and sold him into slavery.
Reuben doesn’t even know where Joseph is! All he knows is that Joseph is gone and he is going to get in trouble!
The interesting thing is that he says “The child is not!” now what is going to happen to me! Where is Joseph-is he dead? Has he been sold into slavery!
Reuben isn’t worried about that he is worried about what is going to happen to him! “Whither shall I go!?”
How often we get that attitude! Our marriages are in trouble because we are more concerned about our own welfare than that of our partner! As a pastor friend of mine, Wayne Cofield, says: Two selfish people can never satisfy each other.
How about serving others as we were commanded by God! So often in churches there are people with hurt feelings because each one is saying “What about me!
Paul ran into that problem and says
Philippians 2:20-21 For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.
They didn’t even seek the things of Jesus! They wouldn’t care for others! They wanted to just look out for number one!
The challenge for today is to look out for the other guy. To seek the welfare of others. To quit being so self centered, to die to self and live for others!
The sad thing is that Paul could only send Timothy because no one else would even care. What a sad state of affairs!
How do your priorities line up? Do you seek to meet your spouse’s needs or fight because you want it to all revolve around you? At church and in the community do you seek to serve or be served, to bless or be blessed?
Please worry more about Joseph than what might happen to you! Your responsibility is to care for whatever or whoever has been put in your care! Priorities-Priorities!
December 31 2008 | Daily Devos | 2 Comments »
We had great message tonight from David Young, our son in law and missionary printer, tonight! He preached from 1Samuel 1. He talked about how God remembered Hanah!
If you missed the service you missed a blessing. See you Sunday-don’t miss the service!
December 30 2008 | General | No Comments »
Tonight, Tuesday December 30, 2008, we will have our mid week service instead of our usual Thursday evening service. We will continue with and finish up Lord willing the Christmas Quiz. Service starts at 7:15 pm and I hope to see you there.
Thursday through Friday the church staff and I hope a good number of you will be in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for the Summit. It will be a wonderful time as we worship and consider the cause of World Evangelism. If you are not signed up we will still make a way for you to get in!
Sunday morning we will be having our first service of the year obviously! It will be a very special day as we all love that feeling of starting over! Don’t miss Sunday. I can’t wait to see what God will do in 2009.
Sunday night will be very special as we have a commissioning service for Mark and Natasha! You will not want to miss this service. As you know they will be starting full time deputation on January 4th. They will not be at our church very much any more until they leave for the field.
This will be one of the very special services that we have to tell them that we love them, believe in them, and will be praying for them.
I hope you will get a special offering together to give them. I am very proud of them and excited about their new ministry.
See you tonight!
December 30 2008 | General | No Comments »
Genesis 30:27 And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.
Laban speaks to Jacob at the end of one of his contracts and says the above verse-I have learned by experience that the LORD has blessed me because of you! He then proceeds to make another contract.
As I read this verse praying through my Bible I always pray that God will make this verse a reality in the lives of my friends, family, church, etc. I hope that they can learn by experience that God blesses them because of my ministry.
For the application to your life I challenge you to consider this:
Does your employer feel like he or she is blessed by God because of you? Though they might not understand spiritual things they might know if they are blessed or their business is strengthened by your presence.
Wouldn’t it be good if we had such a testimony that they knew that having us as an employee was a plus to them? We are commanded as Christians to not be men pleasers but to work as though we were working for the LORD Himself.
What time do you show up for work? Do you abuse your break schedule? Do you give 60 minutes of work for every hour you are paid for? Do you have a grateful spirit for the job that God has given you?
Do you take care of the tools and equipment that belong to your employer like you would if they were yours or even stronger -God’s?
We should be witnessing to those we work with and for! We should tell them what Jesus has done in our life. We should invite them to church, but our words will fall on deaf ears if they see us as hypocrites that do not carry our load at work. If the other workers feel that they have to carry you, the boss feels like you take advantage of the system you will hinder the testimony of Jesus Christ in your life and work.
The question is not do you feel like you give and work like you should but what have they learned “BY EXPERIENCE!” The real issue is not what you think but what they think!
Work, carry your load, get their early and stay late-for the cause of Jesus Christ!
December 30 2008 | Daily Devos | 2 Comments »
The following quote is taken from an article Churches More Informal, Diverse than a Decade Ago at the ChristianPost.com.
Along with the diversity, however, leaders of congregations are older, on average, than they were in 1998. The median age of the head clergy has increased from 49 in 1998 to 53 in 2006. Furthermore, congregations across the religious spectrum have fewer younger leaders. Today, only 39 percent of congregations are led by someone 50 years old or younger, a drop from 48 percent in 1998.
I guess I am a little older than the new average at 54! But this should scream to us that we must reach and disciple younger people and pray that God calls them into His service. I thank God for the Our Generation Training Center. Here we want to train men and women to be missionaries and to take the gospel across the world.
We also want to see young men come, train, be interns, and then start churches across the United States. Even Georgia is in serious need of new churches that will reach souls, preach the Bible, and send missionaries around the world.
Let this be a clarion call to us to pray and preach that God bring forth younger leaders!
In other findings, the median congregation is the same size today as it was in 1998 (75 regular participants); the median person still attends a congregation that is the same size as it was in 1998 (400 regular participants); the overall level of conflict within congregations has not changed much since 1998, with 26 percent of congregations experiencing a conflict in the last 2 years that led some people to leave and only 2 percent of congregations reporting a conflict over homosexuality; and there has been no increase since 1998 in the extent of congregational involvement in social services, in the percent of congregations receiving public funds in support of their social service work, or in the extent of congregations’ collaborations with government.
Notice that the median size congregation is only 75 people while the median person attends a church of 400. Median is different than average. The average is arrived at by taking the attendance of all, adding them up, then dividing by the number.
The median is arrived at by taking the number of units and then just finding the one in the middle. So of all those that attend church the one in the middle attends a church of 400 meaning that half of the church attenders attend 400 or more, etc.
There is much to do. We must start more churches, reach more people, and train more leaders.
Vision Baptist Church has its work cut out for her!
December 29 2008 | General | 2 Comments »
When I read the following verse I think of young wives that are unable to have children. They lie in bed and cry on their husband’s chest. They beg God for a child. They know that it is not in their power to make it happen-they must trust God.
Their heart nearly bursts. Every time they see a baby their heart cries out! They feel frustrated and so do their husbands. They pray, think, meditate, go to doctors, follow instructions to the letter.
They want a baby. That is how Rachel felt. If she couldn’t have a baby she would rather die.
I wonder how we feel about souls being saved?
Genesis 30:1 And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.
What would happen if we developed this attitude about seeing people birthed into the kingdom? What if we could make the above comparison to wanting to see people saved?
As we enter 2009 I ask you to put it on the line. I ask you to hurt to see God bring someone to Him through your ministry. Let’s meditate on it. Let’s pray and seek God. Let’s cry ourselves to sleep at night until we see some spiritual fruit in 2009.
Who are you personally discipling? Who have you witnessed to, brought to church, spent quality time with? What are you doing to get someone to the Saviour?
I say that we all pray-Give me souls or I die!
December 29 2008 | Daily Devos | 2 Comments »
Genesis 28:20-22 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
Tithing is a part of the Old Testament Jewish law and many would like to do away completely with the idea. I do believe in grace giving. We do not give because we have to or even should. We give because God has blessed our lives and we want to!
I just thought that it was interesting in my devotional reading today that Jacob decides to give God a tithe-tenth because he recognizes that it is God who is blessing him.
This is prelaw days. This is not a Jewish tax to take care of the tabernacle, temple or priests at this point. I do not even know how he goes about tithing or where he takes the tithe. I only know that he told God that he would give because he was seeing God work in his life.
I also know that Jacob is scheming here. He is bartering with God by promising to give to Him if He will be blessed. Many people begin giving with wrong motives but somewhere in your life you need to begin giving.
You need to realize that it is God that provides all that you have. You need to honor Him by giving to Him the first fruits, the first part, the tenth, even more than a tenth. Give! Honor God!
Recognize that God is the source of all that you have and all that you will ever have.
Let me say before I leave this that I quit tithing a long time ago. I have been giving much more than a tithe for a long time. I give out of a heart of love for Him. I recognize that all I have comes from Him. I give because I want to.
But a tithe would be a good place for you to start giving.
December 29 2008 | Daily Devos | 6 Comments »
This devotional is for our teens and singles. I am not sure you understand the word spite in the title so I thought that I would give you a definition. It just might be a word from the old days and we old people.
They used to say when I was a kid-don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. What in the world! I will give you the definition and then leave the rest to your imagination.
According to Websters the word spite means petty ill will or hatred with the disposition to irritate, annoy, or thwart. As synonyms we see malice — in spite of : in defiance or contempt of : without being prevented by
Now the verse that I want you to consider is:
Genesis 28:8 And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;
Esau and Jacob are marrying age. Jacob receives instruction from his parents about who to marry and who not to marry.
Esau is angry with his parents and so he intentionally goes and marries someone that he knows will hurt and displease his parents. I guess he feels like he is vindicated and has taken vengeance on his parents that way.
But what a foolish move. He hurts himself in order to hurt his parents! That is he hurts himself to spite his parents. Some of you may be considering doing that! How foolish could you be.
Your parents have your best interest at heart. God puts them in your life to give you good counsel. You have others that would give you good counsel.
Don’t marry someone to hurt someone else. That is a consequence that you will live with for a long time. You may think that you are hurting your parents when in reality you are hurting yourself even more.
How many suffer for many years in a bad marriage or divorce because in their youthful immaturity they wanted to rebel. Think it through. Why hurt yourself more than even the people you think you are striking out at!
I love you guys and want God to work in your lives. Please realize that after salvation this is the biggest decision that you will ever make.
Get counsel!
December 29 2008 | Daily Devos | 1 Comment »
“You blame me for weeping, but how can I help it when you will not weep for yourselves though your mortal souls are on the verge of destruction, and for aught I know you are hearing your last sermon, and never more have an opportunity to have Christ offered to you” – George Whitefield
December 29 2008 | General | No Comments »
Next »
