Bartimaeus Baptist Temple

Warm greetings, loved ones.  Winter seems to be moving out and I don’t think we’ll be missing it, at least until those 100 degree days start visiting us.  So right now pop open a window, enjoy the fresh air, and read on for the latest happenings in our church home.

We missed having Edith with us last Sunday, but I talked to her a few minutes ago and she’s feeling much better.  She’s going back to work tomorrow and plans to be back in church this Sunday.  We didn’t have the bus again due to a tire needed fixed.  I think that got rectified today and the weather will be better so I’m looking forward to seeing everyone back.

I’m going to talk to you about hearing voices.  There are a cacophony of them around us.  Some of them are silent, yet screen for your attention from the billboard you pass on the street to that screen you carry around in your hand.  Others come from media and still others from the people around us.  everyone’s got an opinion.  Everyone has the secret to your happiness, and after all isn’t that what it’s all about?  Take this advice.  Buy this product!  Make more money!

Some of us may hear a different set of voices.  They say we’re just animals anyway.  Life has no meaning.  Do what you want because that’s all that matters.  Maybe you’d be better off dead.

But there is another voice crying out for us to listen.  It shouts from the order of creation.  It is heard in all that is good and true.  It calls to that part of us that knows something is missing.  Its source is the infinite creator of all things.  It is the voice of wisdom, and we ignore it at our peril.  Let us pick up again the book of Proverbs and learn a little wisdom together.  We’ll read from Proverbs 1:20-33.

Love to you all,

Larry

Good day to you, friends and family.  Read on or click through for the weekly chronicles of Bartimaeus Baptist Temple.

I hope you enjoyed last Sunday as much as I did.  We were still missing a few, but since we have our bus back we were able to pick up others we haven’t seen since the accident.  Linda encouraged us by continuing her focus on legacy with the story of C.S. Lewis.  I spoke about our scripture sweet tooth and showed how at least one of our favorites can in fact be taken as comfort to us even though it was spoken in the context of a message to the exiled nation of Israel.  You can find both talks on our podcast.

This Sunday, I’m going to speak of the devil.  I really don’t like to do that.  If our understanding of his origin is correct, he wanted God’s glory for himself and that’s how all the trouble started, so I don’t like to give him any opportunity that may feed that pride.  However, the Bible does have plenty to say of him, and we are in danger if we remain ignorant of his devices. (1 Peter 5:8-10)

On the other hand, we can go wrong in the other direction, focusing to much attention on him and taking our eyes off of the only One with the power to defeat him.  C.S. Lewis, writing in The Screwtape Letters, puts it this way.

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or magician with the same delight”

So, we’ll speak of the devil, but we’ll learn that he only has so much power as we will give him and as god will let him have.  We should not ignore him, but neither should we fear him.  The power within us is far greater!  Do not dare to play with him as a child might foolishly handle a viper, but do be aware of his power to strike if we are not vigilant against him.

Don’t let him trick you out of a blessing!  Come and join us this Sunday.

Love y’all!

Larry

Blessings to you, loved ones.  It’s a little late, but here’s your weekly update.

It was good to have Priscilla back doing her thing for Sunday school.  She spoke from her heart about how we need to be about God’s work.  I enjoyed sharing what God was showing me about the spirit that he has given to us.  It is not one of fear but of power, love and discipline.  I hope we were all encouraged to choose to conquer our fears in His service.  He will always be with us.  You can listen to both messages from the podcast.

Priscilla also read for us something that I think she found online presenting several cases where one might choose abortion and then telling us who we would have killed.  They included John Wesley, Beethoven, Ethel Waters, and Jesus.  In light of the national conversations now taking place, I thought it would be good to take up this topic.

The things now openly being discussed in our society are heartbreaking.  Until recently, such ideas were heard only in ivory towers, spoken by godless ethicists who know nothing of their chosen subject.  Now we are having open conversations about killing babies right up to and even after birth.

How did we get here?  Where else could we go when we’ve decided that some lives are worth more than others?  I don’t believe anyone likely to be listening to me tomorrow needs convincing that abortion is wrong.  However, I would like to provide you with some facts and scriptural support that may help as you discuss the issue with others.  I also feel an urgency on this topic because God is very serious about the shedding of innocent blood.  He judged His own people harshly for it.  Not only our own nation, but much of the world stands condemned for this evil.  An estimated 41 million babies were murder in 2018 world wide.  It’s hard for us to understand numbers that large, so here’s some perspective.  The latest figures put the state of California at 39 million people, making it the most populous state in the U.S.  If we continue apace, we will be murdering enough people to depopulate California and then some every year!

In His mercy He has held back thus far, but how much loner will he wait?  For this alone I take those more seriously than i might otherwise have who say the end is near.  We ask God’s blessing on ourselves and on our country.  I think it likely that He would reply with these words from Isaiah 1:15-18.

¹⁵ “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. ¹⁶ “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, ¹⁷ Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. ¹⁸ Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. (New American Standard Bible)

It is not a fun subject, but I hope that you will leave better informed and encouraged to defend the innocent and pray for the salvation of our land.

In other news, Priscilla told me that Lisa will be going into hospice care.  Linda and I spoke with Lisa on Thursday.  The cancer has spread throughout her system and there is nothing else they can do.  Please pray for her and those around her.  Respond as the Lord moves you.

I love you all and look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Larry

Hello loved ones.  Here’s your weekly update.

It was a small group last week with several people out sick.  I did speak with Cindy today and they are all better and planning to be with us tomorrow.  Priscilla told me they got the bus transported to the repair shop this week.  We don’t have a time commitment for when it will be done, but at least it is in process.  Kelvin calls the church several times a week to check on the progress, so he was glad to hear that.

This week I am going to talk from a passage that I have given a lot of thought to over the years.  So much so that I am sure I have mentioned it more than once.  I looked to see if I had actually used it as a text.  Apparently back in May of 2009 I did, but based on the notes I found, you all showed me a lot of grace letting me speak again after that.  Mercifully there is no recording, though I had begun to make them by then.

It concerns how and why we deal with sin within the church.  If you’ve been involved as long as most of us have, you’ve heard someone make mention of the proper procedure for dealing with someone who has wronged you drawn from Matthew 18.  It is of course a sound approach, but it takes on much more gravity when we consider the context in which Jesus gave it to us.  The most important thing to know about it is that its purpose is redemptive.  The goal, stated simply in verse 15, is to “have gained your brother.”

As we begin to rebuild, I want to shore up our foundation by bringing to mind some basic principles that should inform the choices we make, particularly with regard to sinful behavior and the conflicts that inevitably arise among us imperfect people.  We’ll read Matthew 18:15-20, but it will be helpful to have read the entire chapter.  It all fits together.

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow.

Love y’all!

Larry

Blessings to you, loved ones.  Here’s what’s happening.

It was good to see most of our folks back last week.  Even Teresa made it.  Until we get the bus fixed we’ll still be missing a few, so pray for a quick turnaround on that.  We enjoyed Priscilla’s humble encouragement and I hope we took up her challenge.  She took Pastor David’s exhortation to do something good for someone that he always gave at the end of the service and multiplied it 7 times.  She told us to do something good for someone every day!  I spoke from Proverbs 3:5-6. 2018 was maybe the toughest hear we’ve had, certainly since I have been here.  The message I have is just the one that has sustained me.  We cannot understand fulling what God is doing, but we know what kind of god He is.  So in this new year we will do what we know, and we will choose to trust Him in what we don’t.

This week, my heart has been heavy for a different reason.  I was thinking about someone I know of who recently passed away.  Only God knows the state of their heart, but I had reason to suspect that they really didn’t know the Lord.  I did not know they were going to die, but I knew it was a possibility.  I made no effort to find out where they stood.

That led me to the verses that will be the basis for this week’s message,  They are from Ezekiel 3:17-21.  Here Yahweh continues His instruction to the prophet Ezekiel with a sobering warning.  He must speak the words that are given to him to warn both the wicked and the righteous away from wickedness.  If he does not do so, anyone who dies unrepentant because they did not hear the message that he was to deliver, God will charge to Ezekiel.

Whenever we read scripture, we should be careful not to take it out of context.  What we read here is a specific commission to a specific person for a specific reason.  However, it does tell us something about our responsibility before God with what He has given to us.  It shows us what justice looks like to Him.  We may not receive real-time dictation from on high, though that is not out of the question, but there are certain truths that we all know.  If we see danger coming and do nothing at all to warn those in its path, how can we stand before a holy God?  How would we feel about someone in the natural world allowing a disaster to happen that they could have prevented?  Nothing here compares to eternal destruction!  Were it not for His mercy and willingness to forgive, I suspect we’d all have blood on our hands that wouldn’t wash away.  Let us all resolve to be faithful with the truth we know and be certain that we have done all that we can do to help save those headed for destruction.

Keep praying, keep trusting, and come worship with us this Sunday.

Love y’all!

Larry