Message for April 30: Who You Callin’ a Fool?

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Blessings to you, friends and family of Bartimaeus Baptist Temple.  Here’s your weekly update.

It was great to have so many back with us last Sunday.  We were still missing a few, but we’re thankful for all of you.  We miss you when you’re not with us.  Priscilla and Kim spoke on the difficult subject of suicide.  They reminded us of God’s love for us and that this is never the answer.  Pastor David encouraged us to take up the mission that Jesus gave us before He ascended back to Heaven.  We wrapped up the service with a prayer of blessing for Shannon, who has completed her time of service with us through the Agape Program at Dallas Theological Seminary.

I’m looking forward to sharing with you this weekend.  To tell the truth, I’m not sure yet exactly where my study of Matthew 5:21-24 will lead us.  Every time I have read it over the years, it kind of scared me a little.  Verse 22 seemed like a really harsh thing for Jesus to say.  I didn’t set out to address that particular passage, but it came to mind as soon as I set out to explore my original subject, so I read it.  I think the Lord is bringing me to a better understanding of what He is saying here.  As always, we need to consider the context to  understand.  This is about what is in our hearts.  Jesus shows us how we can progress from offense to contempt to complete rejection of those whom we aught to love.  This is becoming a very personal study for me, and I pray that the fruit of it will strengthen you as well.

Remember those who need our prayers and support.  Keep an eye on the site for updates as they come to us.  And as I always say when I post the prayer requests, let God show you how to be an answer to someone’s prayer.  He can certainly step in and do miracles, but he gives us the honor of performing His work.  What a joy to be a carrier of God’s blessing!

See you Sunday!

Larry

Message for April 16: Blessed Are They Who Did Not See, And Yet Believed

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Blessings to you, family and friends of BBT.  I hope you’ll join us for our Resurrection Day celebration this Sunday.  Here’s your weekly update.

We had a great crowd last Sunday.  It was good to have so many back with us.  We appreciated having Edith back to play for us.  Recordings just aren’t the same.  Linda taught us the value of devotional by example and Pastor David gave a great message on how we should pray.  Check out the podcast if you were not able to be there.

Is there a person in the Bible that you especially identify with?  Maybe you feel you understand something of where they were coming from.  Maybe you are encouraged by seeing how God used them despite their flaws.  I’m encouraged by many of them for different reasons, but one of my favorites is Thomas.  Yes, “doubting Thomas.”  We’re not told a lot about him, but I think if I lived back then, that would be me.  So I studied with interest the exchange between Jesus and Thomas after His resurrection, recounted in John 20:24-29.  What I found was a blessing for all of us who believe in Jesus today.  I look forward to sharing it with you this Sunday.

We’ll be having a dinner after the service.  I know there will be plenty of everything, but I know for sure there will be more than enough dessert.  Come celebrate with us!

Larry

Message for March 19: Oh Lord, It’s Hard to Be Humble

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

It was a small crowd again last Sunday.  Only once before since we’ve been coming do I remember Don and Brenda not being there.  We missed Edith too.  Keep her in your prayers that she will get better.  I was looking forward to working with her on the songs.  A live musician is always better.  But I was able to pull together some background tracks and we made it through.  Pastor David took us back to the basics, reminding us of the core of our faith.  We must be born again.

While I was preparing, I kept reminding myself, “Your job is to direct the people to worship God, not to take glory for yourself.”  That’s what got me thinking about the topic for Sunday’s message.  Humility doesn’t come naturally for us.  We might even have a low opinion of ourselves, but we want everyone else to pump us up.  Pride and humility are both attitudes of the heart.  

I was going to call this message, “It’s Not About You.”  Linda asked me if I hadn’t already used that title, and sure enough, Back in October of 2015 I did, and even used the same passage we’re going to study this Sunday.  It seems I needed a little humbling.  🙂  When I compared what I did before to what I have just prepared, I found it is really a very different message.  It is a testimony to how God’s living word can reveal something new from the same text every time you read it.  So we’re going back there.  Explore with me one more time from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Chapter 2, verses 3-11.  

See you there!

Larry

Message for February 19: Is God in Your Business?

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

We had a small crowd last Sunday.  Some were sick and others had other obligations.  I hope you know we miss you when you’re not with us.  We love you and want you back!  Priscilla shared a moving lesson about leaving a legacy of God’s love behind us.  Pastor David spoke on properly handling our anger.  Check out the podcast if you missed the service.

This week, I have a question for you.  Is God in your business?  When you walk out the door of the church, does He come with you, or is He supposed to stay out of sight so you can go on with the rest of your life?  We know the answer to that question.  When we turn our lives over to Jesus, it’s a lifetime commitment.  We’re not just committing to go to church on Sunday, maybe give a little money once in a while, and maybe do something nice when we feel like it.  We’re committing to give Him everything!

That means that every area of our lives is subject to Him.  It doesn’t mean we need His express approval for every move we make.  He is gracious and merciful.  He loves us and gives us the freedom to direct our lives as seems best to us.  But we should never forget that He is God.  We should at least be asking Him to guide us in our decision making.  We must be willing always to allow Him to redirect us.  To presume that we know best is the height of arrogance and can lead to big trouble.  Our text will be from James 4:13-17.  I’m pretty sure I know the answer to this one, but ask Him if you should join us this Sunday.  🙂  

Message for January 29: No Apology

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

We were still missing a few folks last Sunday, but it was good to have John and Michael back with us.  I hope everyone can be back next week.  We welcomed another student from DTS’s Agape Project, Shannon, who will be joining us for at least the next few weeks.  Priscilla taught us not to let our circumstances become stumbling blocks in are walk with the Lord.  Pastor David encouraged us to start the new year with the knowledge that God knows everything we are going through and is still in control.

This week, I want to share something with you that will bless you and may help you as you teach your children and grandchildren about God.  It is estimated that 3 out of 4 young people raised in the church leave it while in college, in part because of the intellectual challenges they find there.  No one explained to them the facts that actually support our believe.  When they encounter atheist professors, they have no defense.  In too many cases, adults have never really thought through their belief either, so how could they share with their children?  Scientists with lots of knowledge and ego to match look down their noses and call us foolish for believing in a creator, but if we look at the evidence, it takes more faith to believe there isn’t one.

Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “From the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse.” (1:20 HCSB)

We’ll cover at a high level some of the reasons why belief in God is completely logical, and I’ll share some resources with you that you can study for yourself and share with others.  I know how much it helped me when I began to discover that one doesn’t have to check in one’s brain at the door of the church.  Following Jesus requires faith.  There are some things we cannot know and yet we must trust Him.  But there is much that we can and should know so that we can effectively stand against the enemy’s deceit and help others to stand as well.  Join us and be encouraged!

Larry

Message for January 15: Eternal perspective

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

It was good to be back together after being away so long.  Priscilla encouraged us to “let it go,” giving our concerns to God.  Pastor David interviewed Linda for the January member of the month and we had a little celebration to thank Stephanie for the time she has given to us.

This week, we want to bless you.  I know that Linda is planning an encouraging lesson for the Sunday school time, and I want to share with you something that I believe the Lord is showing me.

When we’re going through trials, it’s so easy to get wrapped up in the now.  It’s so hard to see how some things can ever be worked out for our good like the Bible says.  How is it supposed to be good when people reach the end of their lives and suffer terribly?  How is it supposed to be good when chronic illness robs us of of the life we hoped for?  I could go on and on.  I have struggled with it.

As I walk with Linda through her fight with multiple sclerosis, I ask questions like this.  We have such big plans, and we know it was God who gave them to us.  How can they ever be accomplished. Are we wrong?  Time will tell, but I think we may be thinking too small.

We need an eternal perspective.  We all know that if this were all there is, we would have no hope.  We all look forward to the day when we will be with Jesus and our suffering will be no more.  We aught to long to be with Him.  How can we say that we love Him otherwise?  But what if there is even more?  What could be more than eternal communion with our Lord?  Consider this.

Hebrews 13:8 tells us that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.  Jesus Himself tells us that He and the Father are one.  John writes that nothing was created that He didn’t create.  So, if God is a creator and he never changes, and if we are made in His image, what kind of eternity might we expect?

Heaven is wonderful beyond our imagination.  To be in God’s presence is “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”  Far be it from me to diminish that aspect of life after this earth.  However, I think there’s even more.  I believe that everything we experience here will in some way prepare us for an eternity filled with adventure we cannot dream.

I am compelled to let you know that my conclusions are partly speculative.  We are not told very much about Heaven and what comes next.  But when I consider what I have just shared with you, here is a joy bubbling up in my spirit that suggests to me that the Holy Spirit is guiding me and giving me the hope I have been asking for.  I pray that it will bless you just as much and give you an eternal perspective on your pain.

Come join us!

Larry

Happy New Year & reminder, no service today

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May you be blessed this year, so that you will be a blessing.  Happy New Year.  We will see you next Sunday.

Larry

Message for December 18: What Will You Do with the Message?

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Hello family and friends of BBT.  Here’s this week’s update.

Last week was our Christmas party.  Our gratitude goes out to the good people from the Heights Church for providing the gifts and food and also to Diana Stevens for the over-the-top buckets and bags of blessings.  Priscilla read the traditional Christmas story from Luke 2, and Pastor David urged us to take time to remember and share it at every opportunity.

This week I want to build on what he said by continuing the story.  I want to focus on the shepherds, so we’ll start a few verses back into what we read last week.  God chose these humble shepherds, some of the lowest people of that society, to share the message that the savior had come.  Now admittedly, the presentation was hard to deny.  Not everyone gets serenaded by a choir of angels when God speaks to them.  But these shepherds still had a choice to make.  They could have decided that since no one would ever believe what they had just seen, they would just keep quiet about it.  People already looked down on them,  They might just think the shepherds did a little to much partying the night before.  But that’s not what they did.  They believed the message.  They went to see for themselves that what they were told was true.  Then they went out and told everyone what they had seen.  This is the example for us.

That message is still as wonderful today as it was then, but sometimes it gets lost.  Whether it’s drowned out by all the trappings of the holiday, or suppressed by fear of those who are hostile to it, or tainted by those of us who find fault with the timing and method of the celebrations, the effect is the same.  We need to be more like those shepherds.  We need to proclaim far and wide the wonder of what we have seen.  Our scripture focus will be Luke 2:8-20.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Larry

Message for November 27: When God Prayed for You

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

Once again we would like to thank Harvest Oaks Church for coming to bless us last Sunday.  Associate pastor Mark Cimino taught us from the parable of the sower during the Sunday school time.  Pastor Jay shared a message reminding us that this is not our home and we should conduct ourselves accordingly.  If you missed it, we have the podcast episodes up.  But we can’t reproduce the excellent and ample spread they served us afterwards.  For that, you had to come.

I hope you all had a great time with family and friends over the holiday.  Most of all, i hope we all remembered to express our gratitude to the Lord who made it all possible.  We all have something to be grateful for.

As of this morning, I still didn’t know what I was going to talk about.  I was sitting on the couch having coffee with Linda as she did her morning Bible reading, which included John, chapter 17.  We started talking about it and I asked her if she would read it out loud for me.  I was struck anew by the wonder of it.  Have you consider that this is the one place in the Bible where God prayed for you?  How is that even possible?  To whom, after all, would God pray?  Herein is part of the mystery surrounding the Trinity.  That’s our theological word that describes the nature of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  They are separate, yet one God.  I’m not going to try to unpack that for you this Sunday, but it is necessary to touch on it to explain how I can say that God prayed for you.  Jesus has just been sharing with His disciples prior to His crucifixion.  He ends his instruction with this prayer for the disciples.  But it wasn’t just for them that He was praying.  He says in verse 20, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;”  So, if this is the prayer that God the Sun prayed to God the Father on our behalf, we might want to pay particular attention to what He said in it.  For the sake of time we’ll focus on verses 20-26, but I urge you to read the whole chapter for context.  There’s way too much here to cover in 30 minutes, but I think we can get some very important truths in the time we have.  Come and join us as we look into this unique and amazing prayer.

In His love,

Larry

Message for October 30: Holy halloween Hullabaloo

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Blessings to you, family and friends of Bartimaeus Baptist Temple.  Here’s your weekly update.

Last Sunday was one of those special times we share together that you had to be there for.  When people share things they might not want the entire world to hear, I forego posting the podcast.  The Sunday school was one of those times.  Priscilla led us in a time of ministry that was inspired by the Holy Spirit.  Pastor David urged us not to give up, but to finish what we have started for the glory of God  That podcast is available for your edification.

This Sunday will be the day before Halloween.  If you’ve been in church long, you know this can be a point of contention in the church.  Some say that it’s evil and we should have nothing to do with it.  Others say it’s harmless fun and we shouldn’t make a big fuss over it.  Who is right?  How should a Christian respond to this holiday?  I think the guiding principles in this matter can be found in Romans 14 and in 1 Corinthians 8.  We’ll look at the origin and history of Halloween and then consider how this teaching can be applied to it.  I will say, however, that we could sum up the best advice about Halloween with this quote from Romans 13:12, “The night is almost gone, and the day is near.  Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”  Let us celebrate good and not evil.  If we can do it on October 31st in a way that draws others to the message of Jesus instead of driving them away, so much the better.

Now don’t be afraid to come and join us.  I might look scary, but I’m harmless.  I promise the only ghost you’ll meet is the Holy Ghost.  See you there!

Larry