Bartimaeus Baptist Temple

Blessings to you, friends and family of BBT.  Your weekly update has arrived.

Last Sunday was our 60th Homecoming celebration.  Thank you to everyone who helped make it a good one.  I was so glad that Linda was able to be with us.  It was a time to remember those who have gone before and thank God for what he has done in our church.  Pastor Jay Gibson of Harvest Oaks Church blessed us with a message appropriate to the event.  You can hear it on the podcast or watch it on our Facebook page.  And of course there was plenty of good food, so much so that we’ll go ahead and have our fifth Sunday fellowship this month to finish it off.

This Sunday, Linda has prepared an encouraging lesson for us.  She has been excited to bring it to you and I know you will be blessed.  I am going to speak from Luke 19:11-27.  This is a very similar story to the one in Matthew 25:14-30 that most of us are probably more familiar with, but there are some interesting differences.  I’ll talk about them and about what Jesus is saying through both of these parables.

Something else is in my heart as I sit here writing to you this afternoon.  We are a church that believes in prayer.  That is why we maintain the practice of always having a time of prayer requests before the service begins and why we share them on line so that our members can come back to them and others may add their prayers to ours.  We know that God answers our prayers, even if sometimes we don’t like the answer.  We know that we serve a loving and faithful God who has sustained us for all these years.

That is why I ask you now as you pray for each other to always pray for our church.  Pray that we will love each other so that the world will know that we are His.  Pray that we will fulfill the calling that He has given to us.  Pray that we will choose wisely the future course of our ministry.  Pray that we will be fruitful and multiply.  Pray that He will show you what your part is in His work here.  And finally, pray for your leadership, that we will know His voice and execute faithfully that which He has given us to do, knowing always that it cannot be done without Him.

I love you!

Larry

Blessings to you, friends and family of BBT.  Here’s what’s happening this week.

It’s September.  The kids are back in school, and hopefully we’ll soon see some cooler weather.  This is the time of hear when we usually have something exciting happening every month, so I hope to see you there.  We did have a good crowd last week.  Priscilla shared a song with us and taught that we should believe what God says about us.  I talked about forgiveness and why it is so important to our relationship with God and with each other.

I took the day off on Friday and one of my coworkers asked me what I was going to do with it.  I said that I’d be preparing a sermon and she asked if I’d be using them as illustrations.  I just smiled.  Actually, I’m going to use myself.  God is talking to me, and I’m going to share what He’s saying because I know it is something we can all benefit from.

I have long been aware that sometimes I am not as careful with my words as i should be.  I want to fit in, so I join in on the complaining.  I try to be funny and to throw a few of of my own jabs in the lighthearted sparring that often goes on between coworkers.  I know better, but in the moment I do it anyway.

God calls us to a higher standard.  We are His representatives.  Everything we do and say should be a reflection of His character.  Our mission, wherever we are, is to make disciples of all peoples.  When we engage in speech that tears down instead of building up, then we are working against Him instead of for Him.  That is really not a place I want to be.  To make lasting change in what we say, we must change what we think.  We aught always to be seeking the Lord’s wisdom to guide our interactions with those around us.  Our main text will be Colossians 4:5-6.

Come join us!  Love y’all!

Larry

Blessings to you, loved ones.  Read on for this week’s update.

It was a small crowd last Sunday, but that gave us an opportunity to share with each other more easily.  I appreciate each of you who contributed something to the discussion we had during the Sunday School session.  I hope you’ll always come ready to share something that God gave you in your prayer and study throughout the week.  If the opportunity arises, you’ll be ready.  If not, you’ll have something you can share outside the walls of our building.  We should always be ready for that.

Priscilla and Kimie were off getting some much needed down time.  Edith, Anita, and Dede were all not feeling well.  Keep them in your prayers.  We miss all of you when you’re not with us.  We are blessed by your presence.

Speaking of people who are missed, Teresa made an appearance!  She always brightens the room and we’re so glad she got to come.  I also noticed that Ms. Fox was waiting at the door before the service, taking seriously the idea that whoever arrives first should be ready to greet others who come in.  I’m just so delighted at how you are all picthing in to make this church all that it can be for the glory of God.

This Sunday, Linda has something special to share with you for Sunday  school.  I think you wil be blessed to hear what she has to say.  I am going to pick up where we left off last week, moving into the 10th chapter of John.  Jesus is still speaking after he has healed the man born blind and revealed to him Who it is who has don it.  This is His answer to the challenge of the Pharisees, “we are not blind too, are we?”  Jesus now uses a well understood metaphor from prophecy to declare again who He is.  He is the Good Shepherd.  We’ll focus on John 10:7-18.

Come join us!  We love you!

Larry

Blessings to you, loved ones.  Here’s your weekly update.

I can’t tell you how much joy you all brought me last Sunday during our 5th Sunday fellowship.  I’ve been talking about how we need to function as a church and that everyone has something to do, but when Cathy and I started talking about the practicalities, I wasn’t sure we were ready to embrace the idea so fully.  I was so wrong, and I am so blessed.  If Pastor David were permitted to speak to us now, I think He’d express the same kind of delight in the way you all responded to the call.  Thanks to everyone who brought food as well.

It was good to see Tim back again and doing better.  I think I understood that he transferred out of his chair into the pew.  He’ll be testifying before we know it.  Debra had a family event so she didn’t join us, but she came to the meeting of the Dallas Christian Fellowship of the Blind that meets the 4th Saturday of most months in our building.  She is doing much better.

We have a number of prayer needs that are posted each week on the Praise and Prayer Requests page.  If you find yourself at a loss for something to pray about, there’s always plenty of material there.  I think part of the reason we do this is that it draws our hearts closer to His.  As we spend time in prayer, we develop the same kind of compassion He has for those we pray for.  Cathy sent us another one yesterday and I regret not getting it posted as it was time sensitive.  In time we’ll come up with a more efficient means of getting things like that out.  We will still pass it along person to person but it would be nice to get it online when appropriate so that as many as possible can be praying.

Her request read, “Please add Maddie to your prayer list today.  She is a 3 yr old with downs syndrome who is going through heart surgery today.  Her older brother & his wife live next door to our daughter in Mabank.”

The event has passed, but this family can still use your prayers.

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been sharing with you about how Jesus often had a higher purpose for the miracles He performed.  In the account of the man who was paralyzed who was brought to Him through the roof, we saw Him prove his power to forgive through the healing.  Then we considered the healing of the man lying at the pool of Bethesda.  Here Jesus offers a sick man a level of respect he probably didn’t get anywhere else by first asking Him if he wanted to get well.  This was also a probing into the man’s heart.  But Jesus was up to something much more.  He was setting the stage for His ultimate act of sacrifice, through which the entire world can be healed from the greater sickness caused by sin.  But we must want to get well.  He will not impose it on us.

This time we’ll go a few chapter’s further and start with John 9:1-12.  This story takes the entire chapter, but we don’t have time to explore all of it at once.  Now we see something that hasn’t been pointed out in the other two cases, though it would be equally valid.  When Jesus and His disciples come upon a blind man as they travel, the disciples tactlessly ask Jesus, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?”  Jesus’ response in part is this, “so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

Now we see how it may be that suffering plays a part in God’s plan.  We’re not given this man’s age,  but we know that he is grown and has been blind from birth.  As with most people in his day with disabilities, he has few options and makes his living by begging.  His own people look down on him as evidenced by the question the disciples asked.  His life has not been easy, but it was all for a higher purpose.  Now he will glorify God in a way few people would ever have opportunity.  He displays the work of God, that the blind may see.  This story used to make me angry.  Now it brings me comfort and joy.  I am excited to share it with you!

I love you, and I want to see you on Sunday!

Larry

Blessings to you, loved ones.  Here’s your weekly update.

I’m so blessed by all of you!  Things have changed and they’ll keep changing, but you have remained faithful.  That means more to me than I can say.  It gives me hope that we are ready for whatever God is going to do next.  It is often on the other side of the fire that the blessings come.

This heat does make it hard for some, including my beloved Linda.  So once again she did what she could and provided her lesson for us by recording.  We were blessed to here her personal application of the sanctification process.  I enjoyed sharing with you from 2 Peter as he gives us a quick start guide to the Christian life.

Now I have a question for you.  When you look at others, do you see what God sees?  This is an important question, especially in a church like ours.  You may have seen the commercials on TV for the drug to treat psoriasis.  They echo the poignant cry of so many with conditions that cause people to treat them differently.  The people say, “See me!”

Even those of us who deal with disability can fall into the same tendency to see others who we think are worse off than we as objects of pity.  We don’t look past the obvious.  But Jesus did.  He healed many people, but even among those He healed, he recognized that healing was not their greatest need.

We’re going to look at one of these accounts from Luke 5:17-26.  It’s the same story we find in Mark 2:1-12.  Jesus has become known for His power to heal, and he’s preaching to a packed house, literally!  When four very determined friends of a paralyzed man could not get anywhere near Jesus, they took extraordinary measures.  They got up on the roof and broke through to let the man down in front of Jesus.

Of all the responses Jesus might have made to this brash action, they probably were not expecting the one they got at first.  He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”  There’s a lot going on here and we’ll try to explore all of it, but what I want you to notice here is that Jesus first addressed the more serious problem.  Only then did he heal the man’s condition.

At Bartimaeus Baptist Temple, we’re on a mission to minister both to and through people affected by disability.  I believe God gave us that mission, but we can never forget the greater mission given to all of God’s people.  We are to become disciples and make more!  The biggest need humanity has regardless of physical condition is Jesus.  Before we submit ourselves to God and become new creations in Christ Jesus, our biggest problem is sin.  It dooms us to eternal separation from God, and there is nothing more tragic than that.  Our mission is to bring the lost to Jesus and to help them on their way with Him.  Our special calling is to those who face a few extra challenges in life, but the objective remains the same.  Let us see what God sees in each other and in all of those around us.

Do pray for each other and keep in touch throughout the week.  We’re all family, and you never know what a kind word and a little love might do for someone.  I got a text earlier today from Priscilla asking for prayer for Violet, apparently a cousin of Cathy, who fell today and was taken to ICU with bleeding in the brain.  We pray for comfort and for healing.  Remember Debra as she copes with multiple health challenges.

It was a delight to see Tim and the rest of the family  back with us last Sunday.  Keep praying for his recovery.  I’m still expecting the day when he’ll be standing up in front of the church giving God the glory for what He has done for him.

I can’t wait to see you on Sunday!

Love y’all,

Larry