The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.48

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

Hi everyone!  I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday.  Linda and i spent a nice quiet day at home listening to worship music and praising our awesome Lord.  We all have so much for which we can give thanks.

It has not been an easy week for everyone.  Priscilla did sound better when I talked to her this morning.  She and Kimi are improving.  Cathy’s brother Gary fell and broke a hip yesterday and is to have surgery sometime today.  Brenda is attending her uncle’s funeral today.  Pray for her family.  Cindy’s cousin Cathy passed away on Tuesday from covid.  Pray for her family.

Sometime last week, a window was broken at the church.  Public speculation as to who and why is probably not helpful.  Let us just pray for them, and do what we can.  Thanks to everyone who has worked to get it fixed.  We are making slow progress.

This Sunday, we’ll be continuing our kingdom study with the account of the “rich young ruler” from Matthew 19:16-26.  You will recall, I hope, some of the material, as we covered this from Mark’s gospel just over two years back.

We’ve probably all heard some version of the saying, “You can’t be too rich or too thin.”  We know one actually can be too thin, but can you be too rich?  In our culture of envy, it certainly would seem that the answer is “yes,” but how much is too much?  I’ll bet whatever that number is, it’s more than whatever people who believe that have.  There’s no tangible indicator of “too rich,” because the problem is not in the possessions, but in the possessor.   You are too rich if your possessions own you.

Jesus said that it is impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.  This was astonishing to the disciples.  After all, even the law taught that God would prosper those who obey Him.  Riches were seen as a sign of God’s favor.  Sometimes they were.  If riches alone excluded one from the kingdom, then Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob didn’t make it either.  The point is that no one can get in unless God makes a way.  When questioned, Jesus said, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (v. 26)

I’m thankful for all of you. I am richly blessed, and I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.47 – Thanksgiving and our new Youtube Channel

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

Blessings, loved ones!  As we move into the holiday season, things can get a little hectic.  As much as we love the parties and the time with friends and family, it can also be a little overwhelming, especially if you have preparation responsibilities.  I pray that in the midst of the bedlam, we can all remember the reason for the season.  I’ know that’s something we usually say at Christmas time, but it applies to Thanksgiving as well.  After all, who are we thanking?  Stop a moment and reflect on His great provision for us, both in this life and the next.

I’m sad to say we will not be having a meal this Sunday, but I’m happy to say we will still be together.  Come ready to thank the Lord for what He has done for you.  We’re going to study Psalm 30, and if there is time I want some testimonies.

You have turned my wailing into my dancing.
You have removed my sackcloth
and clothed me with joy
so that I may sing praises to you
and not be quiet.
O Yahweh, my God,
I will give thanks to you forever. (Ps. 30:11-12 Lexham English Bible)

I’m glad to report that Cathy is fine.  Those who were there last Sunday remember that she left early thinking that she had a fever.  She thinks she may have just gotten overheated closed up in the office because she began feeling better once she got home.  Keep her family in prayer.  They took her cousin off of life support.  Priscilla and Kimi are still fighting illness.

I sure did enjoy what Priscilla did in Sunday School.  Even so I might have to start sitting in the back, because I know she isn’t afraid to come for me.  🙂  She didn’t this time but she has before.  Seriously, we need to be challenged to do what God has called us to do, and praying for each other is one of those things.

Lastly, we have started a Youtube channel in order to expand our reach.  At some point that may also be live streamed, but for now the content will be posted later, usually on Monday.  Please check it out and subscribe.  We need 100 subscribers in order to get a more user friendly URL.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQGum2gsMxtMt87f19GYGzQ

See you Sunday.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.46

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

Peace to you, loved ones.  As I sit here listening to the rain outside my window, I’m thankful for all that God has done and all that He has brought us through.  By His grace, we are still here.  I trust that He has more for us to do.  As I write this, Pris is on her way home after getting her treatment for the pain she has been in.  She says she feels a little better.  Hopefully this will bring some relief, but keep praying for healing.  She and Kimi also seem to be getting colds.

What makes a person great?  Accomplishments?  Status?  Wealth?  What about character?  Does someone in particular come to mind?  Why?  My guess is it isn’t someone who proclaims their own greatness.  Would Jesus think they are great?  He does have something to say about the matter.

This Sunday, we’ll be in Matthew 18:1-6.  Jesus’ disciples have come to know who He is, but they don’t yet understand what that means.  They expect a kingdom, but they are still thinking of an earthly kingdom that works on the same principles that others do.  They don’t yet understand that His kingdom is something very different, and they assume that as His closest followers they’ll have high positions in His new kingdom.  They seem to expend a great deal of energy arguing over who is the greatest among them, and the bickering doesn’t stop right up to the night of His arrest.

In this chapter, Jesus turns their thinking on its head.  He says that greatness is defined by servanthood, and no one even gets into his kingdom without the humility of a child.  Then He goes on to impress upon them how much He values His children.  These lessons are critically important for us to understand.  They have implications for how we treat each other and how we conduct our lives inside and outside of the church.  Let’s explore them together.

See you Sunday.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.45

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

Good day, friends.  Hope you’re all staying warm and dry.  We were missing a couple of folks last Sunday, but they are doing ok and hopefully will be back with us next week.  Keep Cathy and her family in prayer.  The cousin we’ve been praying for over the last few months has passed away.  She and Benny have gone for the funeral.

Do you remember the first time you got a key to something?  I don’t remember the first time, but I remember liking the feel of keys in my pocket.  It make me feel grown up.  The more keys the better.  It means that something of value either belongs to you or has been entrusted to you.  We have keys because we have locks.  We have locks because we want to protect what we value.

What if God gave you the keys to something?  Do you think that something might be important?  What responsibilities might come with those keys?  Well, if you have given your life to Him, He did, and what they unlock is of greater value than anything you have ever known!  But does it need protecting?  Are the keys for locking people out, or for letting them in?

Over the past few weeks we have been examining Jesus’ teaching about His kingdom.  I almost skipped over this text because it does not fit that pattern, but I think we will benefit from taking a look at it.  Jesus asks His disciples who people say that He is.  After they answer, he then asks, “Who do you say that I am?”  This leads to Peter’s famous response, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  What comes next has defined divergent theology for millennia, so let’s see if we can discern what Jesus is really saying and what it means.  Our text is from Matthew 16:13-20.

I hope to see you there.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.44

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

Blessings to you, loved ones.  I hope you get a chance to enjoy this beautiful weather.  I’m thankful for the rain and the pleasant temps to follow.  Speaking of things that refresh, it was good to be back together on Sunday.  I hope we’re done with things that keep us apart.  I am looking forward to better things.

This week, we’ll examine the last three kingdom parables in Matthew, Chapter 13. (Mt 13:44-50)  We talk a lot about context, and it’s just as important here in the gospels as it is in the letters.  Each author means to communicate something by the things he chooses to include and also in the way he chooses to include them.  And of course all of it is being directed by the Holy Spirit.

Chapter 13 consists almost entirely of illustrations (parables) that Jesus begins by saying, “The kingdom of Heaven is like…”  Our chapter and verse divisions are somewhat arbitrary, but it does seem that these ideas were meant to go together.  Jesus apparently spoke them in the course of one day’s teaching.  I am only just beginning to see for myself what Jesus is doing here and I am sure that understanding will be refined with more study.  To put it simply, Jesus has given us a snapshot of the kingdom as it relates to history and the world, and especially of it’s king, Himself.

If I repeat this series in the future, I will probably rearrange the last couple of messages, because the parables we’ll be looking into directly follow the explanation of the parable of the wheat and weeds found earlier in the chapter.  Jesus has used pairs of similar illustrations, and he does so again here.  The parables of the treasure and the pearl go together, then the analogy of the dragnet has a theme similar to that of the wheat and weeds.  All of it serves to give us an idea of what God’s kingdom is and what its king is like.

I get so excited when I see something in His word that I have not seen before.  I can hardly wait to share it with you.  Come join us!

Love y’all,

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.43

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

friends and family, It was good to be with some of you last week if only via Zoom.  It seemed like the right thing to do, but I’m looking forward to getting back together this Sunday.  I do consider it a good trial run for things we might do during the week in the future.  It was brought to my attention, however, that some might have been hesitant to join because of data charges.  Forgive me for not thinking of this.  There is a means of dialing into Zoom meetings, and in the future I will make sure anyone who would prefer to call in has that information.  I don’t think we will have the same problem we did with the conferencing system we were using before.  Often when we opt for a free service, we get what we pay for.  Aren’t you glad the free gift of salvation doesn’t work that way?

I’m happy to report that I feel just fine.  Yesterday I met up with a group that walks the local trails and enjoyed the Spring Creek Trail not too far from where we live.  I used to walk like that all the time, but it has been many years, so I was happy to find I still can.

This Sunday, we’ll be in Matthew 13:31-33.  Here, Jesus uses two analogies to describe the kingdom of Heaven.  We’ll cover them as one because their message is similar.  When we imagine a conquering king, we see someone big, bold, and brutal.  The Israelites of Jesus’ day imagined their messiah would come in with power and throw off the Roman oppressor.  Surely “the kingdom of God” would be something spectacular.  Indeed it is and will be, but not in the way we might have expected.  God seems to like starting with “little Things”: a tiny seed that produces a tree that shades and sustains; a tiny bit of yeast, which permeates the whole loaf and completely changes its nature.  These are some of the pictures that Jesus gives us of His kingdom.  What do they mean for us?  Come and let’s discover together!

Love y’all,

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.42 – Virtual this week only

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

I didn’t want to do this.  I still believe it isn’t really necessary, but it will insure that we remain above reproach should anything unexpected happen.  On Wednesday I was informed that someone I had lunch with the day before and sat next to tested positive for covid-19.  I have already had it and he was not symptomatic at the time, so I have no reason to think that I caught it.  However, since 5 days after exposure are required before one can be tested and that takes us to Sunday, I’ve decided to switch to a virtual meeting for that day.

Since there seemed to be issues with some of us getting charged for the conference line we have been using, we’ll try Zoom this time.  Regular attendees received a link from me via text for joining the meeting and I also sent an email if I had an address for you.  You may want to come in a little early in case you have trouble.  If you didn’t get a link and want to join us, you can contact me directly, on our web site, or through Facebook.

This will be a first for me and I don’t know how well it is going to go, using a screen reader to manage the meeting.  It is a bit of an experiment to see how we might get together more often without having to be in person.  We will have a short meeting just to catch up and share praise and prayer requests.  Though there will be no formal program, you are welcome to share anything that will be of benefit to the rest of the body and we’ll keep it open as long as people want to talk.

I hope you will join us.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.41

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

Blessings to all of you!  I’m so thankful that we got to have our Homecoming service on Sunday.  I’m sorry that things took more time than we thought they would, but it all worked out and we had a great time with great food.  Thank you everyone who helped make it possible. Everyone contributed something.  Special thanks to Rhanda Hasley,, who came and provided our accompaniment for the singing.

We tried to capture the entire service for those who could not be there, but we ran out of power on the phone we were using.  I shared some things I hope we can do as a church in the future.  The full message is up as a podcast episode.  Pastor Jay Gibson did a great job on the dedication of the new kitchen, and  I will be converting that to another podcast episode shortly. You can watch that video on our Facebook page.  Thanks to Kimi and Kenneth for all the pictures.  Those will be up soon.

I hope we can hold onto some of that excitement as we continue on with the Lord’s work in our church.  Nest week we’ll continue with our kingdom study.  We will look at the parable of the weeds among the wheat, found in Matthew 13:24-30, and its explanation in Matthew 13:37-43.

Keep on praying for each other and encouraging each other throughout the week.  It may be harder for us to get together, but we can still be in touch.  We got a message from Cindy earlier this afternoon that her father-in-law has passed away.  Remember that family in prayer.

Come Sunday and bring someone with you!

Love you all,

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.40 – Happy Homecoming!

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

It’s finally here!  After nearly a month of delay, we will finally have our homecoming celebration, complete with dedication of the new kitchen.  Don’t forget, we’ll be starting at 2:00, 30 minutes earlier than usual.  You’re going to love our guest pianist.  I’m going to share some hopes and dreams for our future, working from the book of Nehemiah and specifically 2:17-18 in a message entitled “Rebuilding with Purpose”.

After the service we’ll move back to the fellowship hall, where Pastor Jay Gibson of Harvest Oaks Church will say a few words to dedicate the new kitchen in honor of our beloved Ruth Stephens who was always serving in it and of his father Jerry who donated the funds to make it happen.  Then we can eat!  🙂

It’s been a hard season,  but I still believe that God has great things in store for us.  I hope you can join us to celebrate what He has done and what He will do.  See you Sunday!

Love you all,

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.39

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

Blessings to you, loved ones.  Last Sunday may not have been what we planned, but it was still a joy to be together.  It’s so good to have Priscilla back in action, doing what she does best,  She’s an encourager extraordinaire.  We should be on track to finally have our Homecoming service on the 3rd of October.

This Sunday, we’ll be in Matthew 13:10-17.  It’s between the parable of the sower and its explanation.  The disciples want to know why Jesus speaks to the crowd in parables.  I always found His answer puzzling, and a little harsh.  But there are things I know about Jesus.  I know that he loves us so much that He died for us.  I know that His desire would be that everyone repent and follow him.  So why would he obscure his message for some and not for a select few?

It always comes down to this, that He knows the heart of every person.  Will we be among the clueless crowd, following the spectacle or wanting to be part of the next big thing?  Will we be one of the disciples, following Him and taking His teaching to heart?  The crowd will never understand the truth no matter how often they hear it.  The disciple will learn “the mysteries the kingdom” of Heaven!

Remember Cathy and family in your prayers.  Pray for Priscilla as she is experiencing more pain and waiting for word from her doctors as to why.  Stay in touch and encourage each other throughout the week.  I know most of you are better at that than I am.

See you Sunday.

Love y’all!

Larry