02.22.10

Great Bible Conference

Posted in Bible, Church at 3:03 pm by Administrator

We hosted our second annual Winter Bible Conference this past week and it was a tremendous success. We had Pastor James Knox from the BIBLE Baptist Church of Deland, Florida. Bro. Knox taught the Book of Philippians and handled the book masterfully as he represented it riches in their context applied personally to each and every one of us. We had two sessions each night anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. The first night we worked through chapter one, the second night chapter three, and the third night chapters two and four. The meeting was well attended and God used his word to meet many needs in our church and in our individual lives.

02.13.10

Treasures of the Snow

Posted in Uncategorized at 12:54 pm by Administrator

Hast thou entered in to the treasures of the snow? (Job 38:22)

We had the rare pleasure of getting quite a bit of snow yesterday. Here are a few of our church kids enjoying it.

02.08.10

The Faith of Christ

Posted in Bible at 10:00 am by Administrator

One of the greatest Bible truths to be grasped in establishing one’s assurance is that of the faith of Christ, the perfect, divine faith of God’s own Son which is imputed to us when we exercise our own feeble, human faith in His finished work (Rom 3:22). I have many times dealt with those who through personal sin, or a feeble mind, or an overactive conscience, though trusting in Christ alone, begin to struggle with the simplicity which is in Christ with questions as to whether they had the right kind of faith or enough faith in order to be saved. The doctrine of “the faith of Christ” is generally the blessed truth that diffuses such doubts. Personal faith is a necessity in the new birth (John 3:15-18). The Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior of the whole world (1 John 2:1), but His saving virtue must be individually appropriated by personal faith in the gospel (Rom 3:26). But thank God, though our faith is often weak and beggarly, the wavering and failure of our faith does not result in the condemnation of our souls (1 Tim 2:13), because we have been justified by “the faith of Jesus Christ” (Gal 2:16). Have you ever considered who the first person to believe the gospel was? It was the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt 12:39-40, Matt 16:21). Thus He is the author of our faith. And praise be to God, He is likewise the finisher of our faith, for his faith is unfailing (Heb 12:2). Christ’s faith was God’s gift to us (Eph 2:8) when we believed. And now we can look toward eternity with the very same confidence as the great apostle Paul, not having our own righteousness… but that which is through the faith of Christ (Phil 3:9).

02.06.10

If

Posted in Uncategorized at 11:17 am by Administrator

The following is a poem by Rudyard Kipling. They say that J. Frank Norris could quote it in its entirety from memory. I think Kipling had a terrific grasp of manhood.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

 –Rudyard Kipling

02.04.10

Learn the Language

Posted in Missions at 7:45 am by Administrator

It is increasingly evident to me, from all of the missionaries I speak to and the few places that I get to visit that it is essential if a missionary is going to “make it” and prosper on the foreign field he’ll have to learn the language. In a recent prayer letter, Mike Fluech missionary to Malawi, relayed the story of lending his open-air preaching voice to the aid of a police officer attempting to get the attention of the angry crowd to locate the owner of a parked car that needed to be moved. When he yelled out in Chichewa (the native language) for the car owner to come at once, a hush fell over the angry crowd of over 500 souls. As they looked at the white man that spoke like them the crowd actually broke out in a round of cheering and applause. The missionary is naturally viewed with suspicion in a foreign land regardless of what his intentions are; and knowing the language of the native people goes a long way in diffusing that suspicion. Don’t you want all of these foreigners to learn English if they are going to stay here? While in Zambia with missionary Mike Dobbins it was amazing to see the look on the faces of many of the nationals as they heard Mike address them in their native Bemba. As you can imagine it is basically impossible to be an effective personal worker without knowing the native tongue of the people you are ministering to. Mike Roberts after eighteen years in Vietnam speaks fluent “street” Vietnamese and he attests to the fact that simply knowing the language (which shocks the nationals) opens many opportunities to be a witness. Count Zinzendorf, the German nobleman that founded the Moravian settlement of Herrnhut, once made a visit to the island of St. Thomas which had a thriving mission work among the slaves there founded and staffed by Moravians from Herrnhut. After a thrilling visit the Count had a special surprise for the 800 slaves gathered on the last night of his visit for a special church service. After only a brief stay on the island Zinzendorf stood and began to preach in Dutch Creole which he had begun to study since arriving on the island. The local slaves were greatly moved by this act, and many souls were saved that night as a result of the preaching. If you decide to go to the foreign mission field make up your mind before you ever start deputation to learn the language!

02.02.10

Bible Conference Topic Announced

Posted in Uncategorized at 4:28 pm by Administrator

We’ve announced the subject for our Annual Winter Bible Conference on February 15-17. Pastor Knox will be teaching from the Book of Philippians. There’s no guarantee that we’ll finish the book, but it will be a great study for our church. The Book of Philippians is “high ground” and I’m greatly looking forward to the study. We’ll begin each night at 6:30 PM  and we’re going to get in two sessions (approximately an hour each) on each night. It would be great for you to start reading through the Book of Philippians over and over in preparationg for the Conference. And don’t forget to pray, pray, pray, and expect great things from God.