Sunday May 13, 2018: “Welcome to Mother’s Day!”

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It was a great time last week at BBT. Pris taught on Praise and Worship and what the difference was.  I brought the message on the difference between the love the world has and the agape love that God wants us to have.  I admit it is hard to love unconditionally but God is expecting it out of us, we need to try harder.

This Sunday it is Mother’s Day.   Where would we be without our Mother’s?  I know there are many people who never had the Mother-Child relationship God meant for them to have but for those of us who were fortunate to have a Christian Mother we were truly blessed!  This week I want us to look at the structure God has for us to have a house that withstands the storms of life.  The scripture verse for this week is Luke 6: 46-49.  Jesus is talking about building our house upon a rock for our foundation not the sand.  Clearly he is talking about building our lives on him as the rock as a foundation but I also want us to look at this as what better to build our homes on the rock of Christian parents.   We are going to discuss the importance of our Mother’s in our lives and how our lives are effecting by the way we grew up.  I hope you will join us Sunday as we salute our Moms!

 Please pray for those mentioned in our prayer request last Sunday and remember to reach out to someone this week and do something good for them.  Looking forward to seeing you on Sunday and invite someone to join you!

We love you so much,

Pastor David & Pris

Sunday May 6, 2018 "What has love got to do with it?"

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Last week was one of those rare occasions when we have a 5th Sunday.  Usually when we have a 5th Sunday we will be having dinner afterwards, but since we had a dinner this month for Easter we did not.  Linda brought her lesson honoring the late Barbara Bush and how important it is to leave a great legacy after you are gone. Larry brought a message about how we as Christians need to live in this world as an example of why God put us here.  We want to change the world not let the world change us and we can do this by our love for one another!  Both were great lessons and is exactly what the world needs to hear.

 This week I want to continue talking about the love of God and see where Love comes from, what Love looks like and finally what love requires from us.  I cannot think of anything I love to talk more about than love.  We talk a lot about it but we do not do it many times.  Love is a complicated thing because there are so many kinds of love.  This week I want to make it simple and divide it into 2 categories, NEED LOVE AND GIFT LOVE.  I want to show what each does and why we need to learn more about gift love.  The scripture verses this week are again in the Gospel of John 15:9-17.  This is Jesus telling us how much he loves us and how much we are to love each other.  He wants us to experience GIFT LOVE!  I hope you will make plans to join us on Sunday and invite someone to come with you!

Please continue to keep the Terrell family in your prayers every day.  Tim is getting better each day but it is going to be a slow process. I am sure Cindy would love to hear from you and hearing you are praying for the family.  Remember all those mention in our prayer request last week and I hope you have a blessed week.  Do something good for somebody this week and we will see you on Sunday!

We love you so much

Pastor David & Pris

 

 

Message for April 29: What? In The World?

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Blessings to you, family, friends, and followers of BBT.  Here’s your weekly update.

It was a good day at church last Sunday.  Every day that the Lord gives us is a good day, and especially those when we can come together to honor Him and have the opportunity to lift each other up.  Priscilla gave us direction on finding peace of mind through peace with God.  Pastor David spoke from the account of the prophet Jeremiah’s call by the Lord to urge us to here His call on our lives.  When we listen to him and do what he calls us to do we will be unstoppable!

This Sunday I want to share with you from part of my favorite section of scripture.  A while back we talked about the prayer that Jesus prayed for his disciples and for us just before His crucifixion. This week, Linda said something to me that got me thinking about how we are in the world but not of the world.  If you’ve been in church, you’ve probably heard that said many times.  It comes from the things Jesus said in this prayer.  Sometimes when we get weary of all the bad things happening here, we comfort ourselves with this understanding.  We often hear it used to urge us to live a life befitting a child of God.  This too is reasonable, but it falls short of conveying the true meaning in Jesus’ words.  We are not of the world because we have His word in our hearts.  We are in the world because He placed us here and gave us a mission!  We rightly yearn for the time when we will be with Him and all will be made new, but while we are here we have a purpose.  When we embrace it, we will find the joy that He meant for us to have.  I suggest reading the whole chapter so that you will have the context, but we will focus on John 17:13-21.

I hope you are praying for each other this week and staying in touch.  Pray especially for Tim and the rest of the Terrell family.  Cindy says they are bringing him home on Thursday or Friday and they are getting set up to care for him.  The doctors haven’t offered a lot of hope but we know the source of hope and of healing.

Be blessed to be a blessing!

Larry

Sunday April 22, 2018 " We have been called "

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Good afternoon followers of BBT I hope you are having a blessed week.  Last Sunday was a great day  at BBT as Linda brought the Sunday school on how when we give our lives to Christ we get an Extreme makeover.  Larry brought his message about what it means to repent.  It is not just saying your sorry then just keep on doing the same thing over and over it is about a change of direction a change of heart a desire to be different.  Both lessons gave us plenty to think about and ways we need to change.  If you were not there Sunday listen to both on our website.

 This week I want to speak to you about what you need to be unstoppable.  We are going to look at the beginning of young Jeremiah and the prophecy God gave him for Israel.  The scripture verses this week are in  Jeremiah 1: 1-19. This is the whole 1st chapter.  God comes to Jeremiah and tells him what is in store for Israel because of the way they have turned away from God.  The message is tough and harsh and the people do not want to hear this and chose not to believe him.  Jeremiah is belittled and criticized for his message even thrown into a pit but he never changes the message.   He does get angry and frustrated at times but he did not stop doing what God had for him to do.  I want to look at Jeremiah’s faith this week and see what was it that kept him going and how we can implement these same things in our lives.  It is not going to be easy but doing the right thing is seldom easy.  I hope you will join us Sunday and hope you will invite someone to come with you.

Cindy has said the doctors tell her there is little hope for Tim to get much better but her faith is strong and we believe our God can do miracles.  She has said they are going to let him come and they are teaching her how to take care of him. Keep praying for the Terrell family and pray for a full recovery for Tim.  Please also pray for the prayer request mentioned last week and remember to keep doing good things for people even when you don’t feel like it.  You are a representative of Christ all the time.  Hope to see you on SUNDAY!!!

We love you so much,

Pastor David & Pris

 

 

Message for April 15: What Does Repent Mean?

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Blessings to you, family and friends.  Here’s your update for the week.

There was a lot happening last Sunday.  We had a new visitor from Brentwood who couldn’t wait to tell us all how much the Lord has done for him.  I think the Lord may have led him to speak out at that moment, even though it might have seemed out of place.  Priscilla taught us about God’s mercy and grace and the necessity of our obedience.  Pastor David challenged us to consider what it would mean if we did get the same proof that Thomas got after doubting his resurrection without seeing the evidence for himself.  Are we ready for the responsibility that caries?

At the end of the service we took a moment to pray for Tim with Mary and the children.  Cindy has been keeping us updated on his progress.  He is improving but if things follow their natural course it will take some time for him to recover.  However we believe in a supernatural God!  We put our trust in Him whatever the answer, but we’re asking for a miraculous recovery.  I know we’ll hear Tim giving God the glory!  Pray for the rest of the family too.

I was somewhat conflicted about what the message this Sunday should be.  We’ve seen so much trouble, I wanted to offer something encouraging and uplifting.  What I feel I need to talk about doesn’t exactly seem to fit that description, but the more I consider it, the more I see that mercy is as much a part of this message as the severity.  In that we may take much comfort.  I knwo I do.

We often get the question, “what does repent mean?”  Whether it is asked with sencerity I will not judge, but I think it’s time the question was answered with completeness.  It is one of those words you’ll rarely hear outside the walls of a church.  Even in church, I don’t think we hear it enough.  When you study the scriptures, you find it everywhere.  When somebody’s preaching, they’re almost always preaching repentance.  It’s obviously pretty important.  So what is it really?  Is it the prayer you say when you come forward to “get saved?”  Is it saying you’re sorry?  That’s part of it, but you can do those things and never really repent.  Lets start from Luke 13:1-9 and try to really answer that question.

Sunday April 8, 2018 "I want to see the proof like Thomas did!"

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What a glorious Easter we had last week.   It was nice to see Bobbi & Zach back with us.  Priscilla taught a Sunday School lesson about doing the will of God regardless of our circumstances, God is worthy to be praised.  Pastor Larry led us in the Lord ’s Supper and I brought a message about Mary and the meeting she had with the risen Jesus.  After the service we had a wonderful dinner.  I want to thank everyone for the great food that was prepared and served.  I want to especially thank my neighbor Diane for the wonderful Easter baskets that we gave away after the dinner.  It was just the way Easter should be, fellowship with family praising God and eating together.  I hope we do that every Easter.

This week I want to pick up where we left off in the scripture verses last week. John 20: 19-30. Mary had told the disciples that she has seen the Lord and he was alive! But they were still hiding and being afraid then Jesus appears to them and the believing begins.  One disciple was not there, Thomas.  When the disciples told Thomas what had happen he did not believe them and required proof.  Soon afterwards Jesus appeared this time Thomas was with them and Jesus went to him and provided proof.  Have you ever wanted proof of what God has told you?  If God appeared and cleared up your doubts would that be a good thing or bad?  You may be surprised.  I hope you will join us on Sunday and talk about why we don’t see the proof Thomas asked for.

 I received some very bad news this morning about our brother Tim Terrell.  Cindy said he fell and there is some bleeding on his brain and he has had a stroke, he is at U T Southwestern Center in ICU.  We are asking for everyone to remember the Terrell family in your prayers and as soon as I know more I will let you know.  It is situations like this that we have to depend on our Faith and the grace of God to keep us going.  If you need us this week call us and let us help if we can.  I hope you have a blessed week, do good things for people every chance you get and invite someone to come with you to church Sunday.  We are thinking about you Tim and pray that God does a miracle in your life!

We Love you so much,

Pastor David & Pris

Sunday April 1, 2018 "Christ was not stolen he is alive!"

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Welcome to Easter week at BBT.  I hope you are making plans to join us this Sunday.  Last week Pris talked about all the violence we are faced with every week.  She explained how we are to show the peace of God to an angry world.  It is easy to get caught up in violence and looking for revenge but God has a better plan for our lives.  I spoke about how so many people do not want to look at, talk about or think about the week leading up to Easter. They just want to talk about the resurrection but not the Cross.  As we talked about last week there would be no resurrection without the death of Christ.  We may not like to look at it but it is the reason we have eternal life and forgiveness of our sins. I encouraged everyone to remember what Jesus went through this week and the suffering of Good Friday.

 This Sunday we are going to look at that first Easter morning when Mary came to visit the gravesite. The scripture verse this week is the Gospel of John 20: 1-18. There is so much going on in these scriptures, Mary sees the stone rolled away and runs and tells Peter & John,  they came running and see the linen clothes laying in the tomb.  They leave discouraged to go back where they came from, Mary sees the angels in the tomb then Jesus appears to her and she did not recognize him till he called her by name.  This is not what they expected but it is what God planned.  We are going to look at the reactions of Mary as she finally realizes that no one stole the body of Jesus but that he was alive again just as he said he would be.  I hope you will join us Sunday as we celebrate Easter together.  We will be having dinner following the service so plan on making it a great day worshiping and fellowshipping together at BBT.

Please pray for all those mentioned in our prayer request last week.  Invite someone to join with us Sunday and we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ.  Do something good for the people you come in contact with this week and remind everyone you meet That Christ rose!!

We love you so much,

Pastor David & Pris

 

 

Sunday March 25th, 2018 "You cant get to Easter without going through Good Friday"

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Welcome followers of BBT, I hope you are having a blessed week.  Last week Larry and Linda had the service.  Linda was not able to be there but she did provide a tape of her Sunday School lesson on how important it is for us to be like silver that has been refined by heat and now is pure silver.  She also brought a tape of the life of the late great Billy Graham.  I t was a very inspiring lesson.  Larry brought his message from Exodus 3 where God says to Moses when they ask who sent you, tell them I AM sent you.  We cannot categorize God because he is so many things there is no label to fit him.  God is saying he is all things, we can’t explain him or control him he is unexplainable.  It was important back then when someone was named, it stood for something.  God just says I AM and he is.  I hope you were with us last week to hear the lessons but if not you can hear them on our pod-cast.

 This week as we celebrate Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, I want to read to you how this week started off in Matthew 21: 1-11.  As Jesus comes into to Jerusalem he is hailed as the coming Messiah and people are so excited to see him.  It will not take them long to change their tune.  I want us to look at the time leading up Easter and what Jesus went through.  I know we do not like to look at this are talk about it, but for Jesus to be Resurrected he had to die first.  We all look forward to Easter Sunday and talking about the Resurrection and wish we could just ignore Good Friday like it never happened.  It did happen and if you want to hear about Easter you have to know what led up to it.  Part of being a Christian is to feel the pain that Jesus went through for you and me.  I know how hard it is to hear these things but it is important for you to hear this so you will understand how much forgiveness cost God.  I hope you will join us Sunday as look at the suffering of our Lord.

Please continue to pray for those we mentioned last week in our prayer request as we trust God to hear our prayers and honor them.  Remember if you can bring a side dish for our Easter dinner please let Cathy or Pris know so we can make plans for Easter Sunday.  Remember to something good for somebody this week and be blessed.  We will see you on Sunday!!

We love you so much,

Pastor David & Pris

 

 

Message for March 18: I AM

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Blessings to you, family and friends. Here’s this weeks update.

We had a great time last Sunday.  Priscilla taught on how we should respond to failure and Pastor David delivered an impassioned message showing that each of us is a masterpiece that God has created to do His work.  If you missed it, know that we also missed you!  The podcasts are available but it’s better if you come!

This Sunday, I want to share with you from Exodus 3:13-15.  Our web site automatically hyperlinks the verse reference to ESV but you’ll understand it better if you read it here.Moses has been called by God to lead the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt, but he’s not to sure he should be the one.  He asks God who he should say told him to do this, and God responds in this passage, “I am that I am.”  In that time much more than today, names were given with meaning attached.  In a most simple yet most profound statement, God has described Himself.  He simply is.  He created all that is.  He establishes reality.  He is.  He can’t be explained.  He can’t be controlled.  He can’t be confined or defined by anyone but Himself.  This is the way He has chosen to be known throughout the ages.  He is “I AM!”  Yahweh is the English rendition of the Hebrew name.

I think we have lost something powerful by hiding His name in most of our translations, so I want to take some time to share with you what little I can fathom  of the glorious mystery that is I AM.  Come and join us!

Larry

Sunday March 11, 2018 "I believe in you!"

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Sunday we started off the month of March by Priscilla showing us how important it is for us to be faithful to Jesus in the good times and bad.  Our circumstances should not change the way we feel about Christ.  God is worthy to be praised regardless.  I brought a message about how we make excuses for not answering the invitations God offers us. We can make time and attend things we want to go to but the most important invitation we have we make excuses why we don’t accept it.  I hoped you enjoyed both of these lessons and you can apply them in your life.  It was nice to see Theresa back last week and nice to see Cindy visiting with us.

This week I would like to share with you about how we look at ourselves some times.  Last week I told you we cannot judge ourselves by how we see ourselves but how God sees us.  It is also important to know how God sees you.  Satan will tell us before we come to Christ how good we are but after we accept Christ his mission is to convince us how bad we are and not worthy to call God our father.  The scripture verse this week is in Ephesians 2:10.  This is how God sees us and why he created us.  For some reason (I know the reason) I see many Christians who have so little self-esteem that they cannot be used by God because they have so little faith.  If we are going to be used by God we need to stand up, speak up and be available to be used by God.  Forget the things of the past, you can’t change them but you don’t have to repeat them. Don’t let your past become your future.  You can change it with the help of Christ who lives inside of you.  You need to understand you are not only forgiven but you are also expected to have a new outlook on life.  No longer are you a lost soul looking for something to make you happy you are God’s greatest work of art. I hope you will join us Sunday as we try to encourage you about who you are.

 Please pray for those mentioned in our prayer request last week and remember to pray for this ministry every day.  I hope to see you on Sunday and invite a friend to come with you.  Do something good for somebody this week and remember to roll your clock ahead on Sunday.  We can’t wait to see you again!

We love you so much,

Pastor David and Pris