The Bartimaeus Blog 2019.1

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Happy New Year!  Let’s make it a good one.  Read on to stay up to date with all that’s happening at BBT.

We had a small crowd last Sunday with so many out sick, but it was good to be there.  Sometimes it would seem easier just to stay home, but I’m glad we didn’t.  Those doors should be open as often as we can open them.  We did have a couple of visitors.  In her Sunday school lesson, Linda reminded us that even though it as been a difficult year, the Lord’s love for us has never failed.  I shared from Luke’s account of Jesus’ early life while here and why it might be that this brief story was included in scripture.  I left my digital recorder at church again so the podcasts are not up, but the video of the sermon is on our Facebook page.

2018 was a tough year.  We’re still feeling its affects and always will.  We lost our beloved pastor.  Tim had the stroke.  Linda’s condition worsened significantly.  Ruth and Don have also faced declining health.  We’ve had to scale back or eliminate activities that have been traditional at our church for years. It seemed we kept getting kicked right up to the end.  In the last few days we learned that Lisa’s cancer had returned.  Priscilla hurt herself again and she and Kimi continue to fight illness.  The parked church van was hit from behind and will require repair.

What are we to think?  Has God canceled our charter, kicked over our candlestick?  Are we hiding some deep secret that has brought on His judgment?  Perfect we know we’re not, but I don’t think so.  Is this a test?  Yes, in that anything that happens to us reveals our character in the way that we respond.  Is it a test from God?  That’s a different question that requires a very careful answer if one should be given at all.  Some things we do know for certain.  God was not surprised.  God is still in control.  He is still working for our ultimate good.  We now have a choice.  Will we continue to trust Him?  I will speak this Sunday from a passage that most of us know well.

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. (Prov 3:5-6)

We hope and pray for a better 2019.  We have reason for that hope.  We serve a good God.  But I think the message for this time is simply this, “Lord, we choose to trust You,.”  We can’t trust Him to do what we think He should do.  He is not our servant.  We can trust Him to be faithful to His word.  We can’t always trust our understanding of it, but we can trust that it is the truth.  It tells us that we serve an all-powerful, all-knowing, just, and loving God.  Hold on to Him, choose to trust, and He will carry you through to an eternity beyond your wildest imagination.

What is true for us as individuals is also true for us as a church.  If we will trust in Yahweh, looking to him first instead of our own understanding, then He will show us the way forward.  Let us reflect upon the good things He has done for us throughout the years.  We will grieve our losses, but we will also rejoice in His goodness.  We choose to trust Him.

Love to you all,

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2018.17

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Blessings to you, loved ones.  I hope you have all enjoyed the Christmas holidays and got a little time to rest as well.  Linda and I enjoyed seeing family on Monday and then spending a nice quiet Christmas together.

Last Sunday, Priscilla taught on the wonder of Christ’s birth and I got to share the message I had planned for the week before with a little more detail than we would have had time for the week of the party.  By making Jesus Lord of our lives we can be assure of peace and good will.

It was good to have Richard and Barbara back with us.  Keep Dede and especially Lisa in your prayers.  Dede is ok but likely to be staying where she is for some time.  Lisa’s cancer has returned and spread.  I think she was to learn more details this week but I do not have an update.

This Sunday is a fifth, but we’re all partied out, so we will not have a fifth Sunday fellowship dinner.  We shall feast on the Word instead as Linda brings a lesson for Sunday school and I share with you from Luke 2:41-52.  This is all we have on Jesus’ life between the events surrounding His birth and the beginning of His public ministry.  It’s a lot less than we might expect today about the most famous person who ever lived.  But writing was a lot more work back then than it is now, so that which is preserved for us must be there for a reason.  Why did Luke think it important to give us this short account of one event in Jesus’ early life?  Let’s see what we can learn!

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2018.16

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Merry Christmas, loved ones!  Jest keep reading for a joyful journal of events past, present, and future at BBT.

We had our Christmas celebration last Sunday with plenty for all thanks to the folks from the Heights Church as well as the Whitmores’ neighbor Diane Stevens who sent along the baskets of goodies again this year.  We had some visitors from the local fire station too, but that was not for such a good reason.  Lisa seemed to be very ill and we needed to be sure she was ok.  They checked her out and determined she was in no immediate danger, but as I shared in a prayer request posted earlier today Priscilla took her to the ER this morning.  Keep praying for her and for her son who is dependent on her for care.

With the time constraints and the necessary interruption I didn’t get to share my message with you and Debra did not get to sing, so we’ll do it this Sunday. I will read again from the traditional Christmas story in Luke 2:4-14.  We’ll focus on verse 14.  Depending on the version you read from, it would seem to say two or three different things.  What’s going on here and what’s the right answer?  Mine may not satisfy you, but I can show you how to banish the question to the realms of debating theologians and be assured of god’s peace and pleasure in you.

I hope to see you there as we all begin our final preparations to celebrate the first coming of our Lord with friends and family.  At this time when we commemorate His birth, know that He came for us.  the best gift you could give Him is to help bring another soul into His family, so don’t miss an opportunity to share the good news with anyone who will listen.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2018.15

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Merry Christmas y’all!  Read on for the latest on what God is doing at BBT.

I enjoyed our time together last week.  I hope you did too if you were there.  We sure missed having Priscilla with us though.  You had to listen to a lot of me.  I did try to soften the blow.  🙂  I always enjoy opening up the floor and hearing people share from their own experiences with God.  I want you to come ready for that because we should all have something to offer.  We didn’t get too personal, but I decided it would be better not to put it online.  If you are a regular and would like the recording I will be happy to share it with you.  You will find the message on John the Baptist on our podcast page.

This week will be our Christmas celebration.  The gracious folks from The Heights will be back for another year with food and gifts.  It would be a great time to bring someone, but if you do be sure and bring something for them if you want them to be included in the gift giving.  The list of names was prepared from those who attended regularly in October.

In the interest of time we will not have a Sunday school session and I will deliver a shorter message.  I know that won’t disappoint anyone.  🙂  I will read from the traditional Christmas story in Luke 2:4-14.  We’ll focus on verse 14.  Depending on the version you read from, it would seem to say two or three different things.  What’s going on here and what’s the right answer?  Mine may not satisfy you, but I can show you how to banish the question to the realm of contentious theologians and be assured of god’s peace and pleasure in you.

Keep praying for those who are sick.  Priscilla said she is feeling better but still coughing a lot.  Kimi is having stomach trouble on top of everything else.  After church last Sunday the Terrell’s van would not start.  They got it home but I don’t know if they have it fixed yet.

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.  Let us enjoy the blessings of provision and fellowship and always remember Who it is and why it is that we celebrate.  As we take this time to rejoice at His coming, let’s ask ourselves what kind of gift He might like.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2018.14

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Blessings to you, family and friends.  Here’s you’re weekly update.

It was good to be with you all last Sunday.  I really appreciate Priscilla’s efforts to engage everyone in the Sunday school time.  Since we have so little time together and we’re a small enough group it is good that we can use this time to share with and learn from each other.  It does mean that sometimes we will keep the sessions off the Internet, but maybe it doesn’t have to stay that way if we come up with a way to securely link in members who would like to participate with us and can’t come.

I enjoyed sharing with you from Luke chapter 1 about the right and the wrong way to question God.  I hope that it blessed you and helps you to have a Mary Christmas.  This week I am going to pick up the story at the birth of John, who we know as John the Baptist in part to distinguish him from John the disciple, but primarily because baptism is what he was known for.  We will begin from Zacharias’ prophecy in Luke 1:68-79 and explore the life of this unique an uniquely honored man of God.

Keep praying for those among us who are sick.  Priscilla and Kimi both sounded pretty bad when I talked to them at different times this week.  I appreciate how we all look out for each other here.  That’s the way God’s family should be.

Love y’all!  See you Sunday!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2018.13

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

It was good to be with you all last Sunday.  It felt comfortable, like being at home.  That’s the way church should feel and i hope you all feel the same.  We welcomed two visitors that Pris brought from Brentwood and they joined right in.  Pris talked about waiting on the Lord and trusting in Him, and I wrapped up our study of Romans chapters 12-13.

There was a little excitement before service though.  When I got to the church, Cathy was out front talking to a policeman.  It seems we had an attempted break-in the night before, but nothing else inside the building was disturbed or stolen.  We don’t know what happened, but we thank the Lord for His protection.

Keep praying for each other.  We have quite a few facing major health challenges who could use a miracle.  We know someone who does those!  Cathy wrote in from our Facebook page with another request, but thanks to Facebook not labeling everything properly for screen readers I accidentally made it disappear before I could capture the text.

We’ve officially entered the Christmas season now, so for the next few weeks I will offer some observations about events surrounding the birth of our Lord.  This week’s message didn’t originate with me, but in fact it’s highly unlikely that I or anyone else is going to come up with idea from this text that hasn’t been thought of in 2,000 years.  I heard someone point this one out and it stuck with me.

The Gospel of Luke gives us two accounts of angelic visitations in the first chapter.  The first is to Zacharias, a priest serving in the temple.  The second is to Mary, a young lady engaged to be married who learns she’s about to be pregnant!  Both receive news of a miracle, but their responses differ in one very important detail.  They both ask questions, but one asks from doubt, the other from faith.

Few if any of us can expect a visit from an angel, but we are confronted with the same choice that Zacharias and Mary had.  Will we choose to believe God even when what He says doesn’t seem possible, or will we question him in doubt.  Mary’s question was one of curiosity.  In other words, “How are You going to do that?”  Zacharias’ question was one of skepticism, “prove to me that You can do that.”  We all have questions, and that’s OK.  Let them be questions from faith and not from doubt.

Love y’all!  See you Sunday!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2018.12

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Blessings to you, loved ones.  I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We have been given so much.  We are blessed to live in a country that still sets aside a day meant for giving thanks to God. I realized late last night that I didn’t publish this week’s update, so here I am on Sunday morning.  Good thing our church services are in the afternoon!  🙂

While we’re on the topic of giving thanks, thanks to Gigi Firth, a member of the Dallas Christian Fellowship of the Blind that meets in our building every 4th Saturday, for her donation of braille paper and binders for use in preparing braille transcriptions of the overheads that we hand out to those who want them.  It is something I am thrilled that we are able to do because I always wished churches I attended could do it for me.

It was good to see most everyone back last week and I hope you were encouraged by what Linda and I had to share with you.  We serve a good God who loves us more than we can no.  Hold on to this when circumstances don’t seem to fit.

Today I am going back to Romans 13:8-14.  Paul is wrapping up the themes he has been developing for the last several chapters and it didn’t seem right to move away from without looking into these next few verses.  I can sum it up in a word, “love!”

I would love to see you there!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2018.11

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

Blessings to you, loved ones.  Read on to learn what’s going on at BBT.

We had a great time last week!  I was disappointed so many had to miss out, but we got to meet some new people who came in for Leanne’s 21st birthday celebration hosted by her family.  It has been a challenging year to put it mildly.  I think everyone enjoyed having something good to celebrate. I’m looking forward to many more.  We also met a new student from DTS who will join us for the next few weeks.  If you didn’t get to meet him last wee, be sure and say hello to Dustin this Sunday and make him welcome.

Pray for those who are sick, most of whom are mentioned in our prayer requests.  Leanne said that John is not looking well.  I did get a call from Kelvin.  He is feeling better and wanted to be sure we pick him up next Sunday.  I am delighted to see people that eager to come to church.  That’s the way it should be.

This week I was going to cap off the sort of mini series I have been doing from Romans 12 and 13.  I’ll come back to that, but I started thinking about how it is the Sunday before Thanksgiving and how it might be a tough one for some of us this year.  It has been a rough ride.  I have only been here a little over 10 years, but i don’t know that I’ve seen anything like it, and that is not including losing our beloved pastor.  One might be forgiven for wondering just what it is we have to be thankful for.  Oh so much!  This is not a lecture on all the reasons we should be thankful.  It is an exploration of how good our God is and all the reasons why we can take comfort that He is still here and loves us as much as ever.  I hope you come away encouraged, strengthened, and comforted.  We will not dig deeply into one passage this week, but if we need a theme from scripture, I will choose Psalm 118:28-29.

I am thankful for all of you and hope to see you Sunday.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2018.10

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

Blessings to you, friends and Family of BBT.  Read on for your weekly update.

I enjoyed our service last Sunday.  Priscilla engaged us in a time of sharing about our hopes for the church.  You hear mine all the time, so I stayed quiet and let everyone else talk.  I will only say that whatever we want to be, it is going to take all of us working together and led by His Spirit to make it happen.  I appreciate the way so many of you have joined in the work.

I have been taking us through Romans, chapter 12.  We finished that last week and I thought it was a fitting conclusion given all of the discord in our country right now.  I hope we can all learn to engage with each other and with those who disagree with us in a respectful and redemptive way.  Always speak the truth, but always in love and with the realization that though truth remains, none of us have it all.

But Paul still isn’t done.  He’s been addressing our relationships in ever expanding spheres, and now we come to government.  I did not plan all of this based on timing, but I can’t help think that the Lord did.  We just had an election.  I think I can safely say that none of us got everything we wanted.  I don’t know anyone who is completely satisfied with our government from either side of the political spectrum.  Some think it should do more.  Others think it does way too much already.  Some see it as corrupt and unjust while others consider it basically good.  What can we do and what should we do to address what we see as problems in our government?

Chapter 13 of Romans begins with a statement that may be hard for us to swallow.  Most of us recognize the need for law and order and don’t have a problem with the idea that we should submit to proper authority, but what about the next part?  The end of verse 1 reads, “there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”  How can that be?  How can a government that does evil things be established by God?  As governments go ours is pretty good, but we have some real problems.  Consider that Paul is writing as a citizen of Rome, hardly a model for a Godly nation.  We will read from Romans 13:1-7 and apply it to our world today.

I’m looking forward to seeing you there. We won’t have Sunday school so that there will be time for an event after church.  Pray for each other. Look out for each other.  Stay connected.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2018.9

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

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

I really enjoyed the service last Sunday.  Priscilla did such a great job with the Sunday school lesson I wondered if I shouldn’t just end it right there so people would think about what she had to say.  We missed having Edith for the worship, but it went pretty well this time with the canned music I was able to find.  I enjoyed sharing with you from Romans 12 as we continue the study of Paul’s teaching on living a transformed life.

Paul wasn’t done yet, so I’m not either, and I think what he has to say next is very appropriate with what’s happening around us right now.  He has instructed us on our relationship to God and then to others in the church.  Now he seems to be moving outward to address how we relate to the rest of the world, even those who mistreat us.  We’ll read from Romans 12:14-21.

It seems right now that we are more divided than we have been in a long time.  It is as bad as I can remember.  Half of us seem to believe that the other half is truly evil and incapable of having a pure motivation for anything they support.  Violent and near violent confrontations are on the rise.

Please don’t misunderstand me.  There is evil and there is good.  There is truth and there are lies.  If we don’t actually believe that what we think is true, then we become liars ourselves to argue for it.  Where we go wrong, especially in matters where scripture is not explicit, is in ascribing evil motivations to those who disagree with us.  You may think that I am wrong, but i hope you will give me the grace to accept that I may be wrong for the right reasons.  Especially in the church, we should be expecting the best of each other.

The versus we’ll study this Sunday suggest a very different code of conduct than we’re seeing on ether side right now.  One may be more obnoxious and even more violent than the other, but both have forgotten these words.  I have definite convictions about who is right, but I have been guilty of saying or sharing things on social media that contribute to the problem instead of the solution.  If we believe we have the truth, do we really think we’ll convince anyone who disagrees with us by calling them evil and stupid?  It didn’t work in the schoolyard and it doesn’t work any better carried into adulthood.  Let us approach those who disagree with us, and yes even those who hate us, with humility, mercy, grace, compassion, peace, and love.

I hope to see you there.

Love y’all!

Larry