Bartimaeus Baptist Temple

Blessings to you, loved ones.  My prayer for you this week is for a fresh vision of His love and purpose for you.  Here’s what I see coming up.

We were almost back to full strength last week and that felt good.  Now let’s bring in some ore!  Priscilla showed us an inspiring video to teach us that attitude can make all the difference.  I spoke on the reality that God does punish His children and it is proof that He loves us.  Everything is on the site if you missed it.

After a heavy message I like to provide a little encouragement.  I’ve been thinking about the future of our church.  We have spoken at different times over the past year about what we hope for, but I want to revisit the topic from the perspective of our namesake.

I suspect there have been more sermons about Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52) in our congregation than just about any other part of scripture.  The name makes it inevitable.  But I am going to put you through one more, because there’s something I want you to notice that speaks to our future and the “vision” for our church.

For people who aren’t familiar with the Bible, Bartimaeus is just a strange word.  My Uber drivers will often just skip the word and ask me if I’m going to “the temple.”  For those who grew up in Sunday school, he’s known for one thing, being blind.  The KJV even calls him “blind Bartimaeus.”  But here’s what I want you to see.  Bartimaeus is not blind!  He was blind before Jesus healed him, but from then on, he could see.

The story of Bartimaeus is not about a blind man.  It is about a man who can see.  The story of Bartimaeus Baptist Temple is not about people who are disabled.  It is about people who find their hope and healing in Jesus.  I am not saying that we all must be healed.  I believe that God has told me that I will serve him best as I am.  I am saying that if we identify with Bartimaeus, we are identifying with a man whose faith in Jesus led to his healing, and that man continued to follow Jesus.  That which defines us should be our faith in Him, not our disabilities.

We will always be a church that addresses the needs of people with disabilities, but those needs are greater than simple accommodation.  We all have these needs. We need to love and be loved.  We need to find the purpose for which we were created and live it out.  The church should facilitate these greater needs for all people.  In so doing, we will be a shining example of what is possible, and we will spread the Gospel message far ans wide.  This is our ultimate mission.  Join us!

I went to visit Larry S. in his new digs this week and found him in good spirits.  He has found another church that is able to pick him up.  He told me they have an old school bus with a wheelchair lift on it.  The bus can hold several chairs.  I’m excited to hear that another church in the area is doing this and I intend to get more information.  I have a name but between a questionable memory and horrible spelling I don’t want to share it here until I verify it.  We want to see churches everywhere doing this!

Keep praying for each other.  I look forward to seeing you Sunday.

Love y’all!

Larry

Hello friends and family of BBT.  My prayer for you this week is that you have a fresh revelation of the love of your Heavenly Father.  Keep reading to find out what’s coming up.

I really enjoyed last Sunday. More people were able to come back.  Priscilla encouraged us to do what God has called us to do as that is the only way things change.  These terrible shootings can’t be stopped by anything short of a change of heart, and we know the One who does that.  I shared about choosing joy, and it was a joy to do it.  Check out our podcast.

This week was planned to be a memorial for Chuck Small for the benefit of local friends and relatives, but circumstances prevented us from going forward with that.  We do not know at this time whether it will be rescheduled.  Keep the family in prayer.

In this message, I’m going to take on a subject that seems to have a lot of confusion around it.  In Hebrews 12:4-13, we are told that God disciplines those whom He loves.  Translations vary, but the idea of punishment is clearly evident.  So why would someone say that God does not punish?  I think what they mean to communicate is that God does not punish His children for harm or vengeance.  Every bad thing that happens in life should not be taken as some kind of retribution from God.

So then, if God does punish, what does that look like?  Consider a good parent.  Would they punish a child without first making sure that the child understands the offense?  That would be cruel and destructive.  It is even written into our laws.  We have a right to know what we are charged with and to face our accusers.  By the time we are sentenced, there is no question of the charges.  Humans may fail in this, but you can be sure that God will not.  If He disciplines us, we will know who, and we will know why.  Let’s look to the Word for answers.

See you Sunday.

Love y’all!

Hello friends and family.  I’ve waited so late to post this that many of you probably won’t see it until it’s old news, but here’s what’s coming up.

First I want to say how much I appreciate all of you pitching in to help keep the church going.  Right now every one of you is especially important to the life of the church and I am so thankful for you.  At the end of the service we gave everyone an opportunity to rearrange the duties that they originally volunteered for a few months ago, and I look forward to seeing you shine.

I spoke on the importance of seeking to know Jesus and follow him as individuals and as a church.  Priscilla spoke on not judging others, following the theme we were on for the last few weeks.  What we’ve said on that subject is true, and I’ll reinforce that truth in this Sunday’s message.  However, I also want to provide some balance.

I think it’s safe to say that Matthew 7:1 is one of the most misused verses in the Bible today.  Even people who don’t believe anything in the Bible know that verse and are quick to throw it up as a shield against any Christian who dares to challenge the way they choose to live.  The same thing happens among people who do claim some form of belief.

Are they right?  Are we forbidden to make any judgment at all regarding another person’s choices or actions?  Maybe if you stop right there, but no document can be understood by reading just one sentence plucked conveniently from its text.  To understand what Jesus said here, we need to read at least through verse 5, and I think you need verse 6 too.  Then we need to consider it along with other things that Jesus said on the topic of judging.  That will give us a very different understanding.

See you Sunday.  Love y’all!

Larry

Hello all.  I hoe you had a great Independence Day celebration.  We are so blessed to live in this country where we are free to live and worship as we choose.  My prayer for you this week is that you find your true freedom in the grace of our Lord.

Last week we had our 5th Sunday fellowship.  It was a good time, but I was saddened to note that it was probably the least well attended eating meeting I’ve ever seen at BBT.  There were some reasons for that.  We didn’t have the bus because Priscilla was out with her knee problems for one.  She did call me today and say that she was doing much better.  I won’t make any promises for her but based on that conversation I’m pretty sure she’ll be back.  Thank the Lord, and thanks to all who pray.

We also decided as a church that from now on we will move the Homecoming service time to be closer to our regular service time.  This way we may be able to get more people to come who have responsibilities at their home churches or just don’t want to miss their own services.  It also eliminates the complication of changing transportation schedules.  We’ll provide more details later as we get closer to the event.

In the message, I spoke from the first half of Romans 14, where Paul instructs us not to pass judgment on one other for our personal convictions.  This week I am going to pick up where we left off, covering Romans 14:13-23.  He has clearly established that if one feels he must adhere to certain rituals or dietary restrictions, it is a sign of weak faith.  However, he cautions us not to judge or be contemptuous of one another over these matters.  They are not central to the message of the Gospel.  Now he takes it a step further.  We may be free, but we are never to use our freedom in a way that harms our brother or sister.  For his audience, that meant one might avoid eating certain foods in deference to the consciences of those around them.  For us, the concepts are still the same.  Only the specifics may have changed.

God is always concerned with people.  His desire is to bring them to Himself.  If we are reflecting His heart, we don’t want to do anything that might cause them to fall away.  In everything we do, He is first, and the other is next.  He gave His life to save them.  How dare we push them away for the sake of a little self gratification!  Here Paul speaks primarily to the strong, as those who have a responsibility to the weaker, to guard, nurture, and protect.

What does that look like in today’s society?  It depends in part on who we know and what their background may be.  If you are surrounded by traditional Baptists, it might mean you avoid drinking, or at least posting it on social media.  In some churches it might mean you dress a certain way.  It might mean that you avoid doing things that aren’t wrong in themselves, but might cause others to sin because they are perceived as things that Christians do not do.  For people like me, it might involve staying silent on politically divisive issues that don’t really matter that much.  The objective is always to draw people to Jesus.  One might say there is no higher calling.  Our highest calling is to love God, but in so doing we come to love what He loves.  He loves people!

I love you!  I hope I’ll see you all this Sunday.  Pray for Cathy and Ruth as they are off seeing family.  Cathy will be off celebrating her anniversary this Sunday but we might see Ruth if she feels up to it after her trip  and Gary can bring her.  Keep praying for Lupe.

Larry

Blessings to you, loved ones.  My prayer for you this week is that you find time in your often busy schedules to spend in fellowship with our Lord.  May you be refreshed by entering into His rest.  Read on to see where we’ve been and where we’re going.

For the second week in a row we had to contend with storms, but thankfully this time the results were not as serious and everyone made it home.  We ended rather abruptly so that people could stay ahead of the weather.  Linda sent along a great lesson to encourage us to carry on the work that God started in this church, using another example of an unlikely person leaving a lasting impression on the world around him.  In observance of Father’s Day, we did our traditional gift presentations and I shared with you some of the lessons I learned from my father.  You can find both in our Podcast and the message is also on Facebook.

It was great to see Tim come in last Sunday without a wheelchair.  He continues to improve.  I just spoke with Lupe on the phone and she is in good spirits.  She does not feel ready to come back to church but she is up and around and able to see to her own needs.  Her family has been taking good care of her.

Some time ago I was reading from Exodus 31, and I noticed something I know I had read many times before but that time it got my attention.  God commanded that Sabbath breakers should be executed!  There were several things in the law that one could die for, but most of them make some level of sense to me because of the harm those sins do in the lives of those who commit them and to those around them.  Sabbath breaking didn’t seem to me to belong in that category.  So my question was, “What am I missing?”  What makes the Sabbath so important, and how, if at all, does it relate to us as Christians redeemed by the blood of Jesus?

Most of the church today has relegated the Sabbath to the dust bin of Old Testament history.  If we mention it at all, it is within the context of Jesus’ run-ins with the Pharisees over what could and could not be done on it.  It’s a relic of legalism and nothing more.

Yet we have a history of applying some of the same stricture to Sunday as the Jews to the Sabbath?  Though they have largely disappeared from modern society, laws that restrict what one can do on Sunday used to be commonplace throughout the country.  Others insist that we must keep the Sabbath on Saturday and have formed their own sect to institutionalize the practice.

What would Jesus say to all of this?  I think it could be summed up in the last two verses of our primary text for this Sunday, Which will be from Mark 2:23-28.

“The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”(NASB)

The Sabbath is of great significance, but as we often do, we turned something meant for our good into a tool of division and oppression.  It was meant to signify something far greater than an enforced day off, whichever day you choose.  It was meant to draw us to the source of life!

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday!  🙂

Love y’all!

Larry