Christmas 2014 Wish List :)

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Greetings & Blessings Friends & Family of BBTemple!  Priscilla asked me to share our Christmas 2014 Wish List with all you generous souls out there who wish to Bless Our Children:

For our precious little girls Rachel, Lexus & Jayne:

RACHEL (age 8):  Pants–Size 8 Reg; Shirts/Sweaters/Jackets–Size 8; Shoes–Size 4

LEXUS (age 4):  Pants–Size 6 Reg; Shirts/Sweaters/Jackets–Size 6; Shoes–Size 1

JANE (age 5):  L’il Jane is set for clothes but would love a new bike w/training wheels! 🙂 Oh & she likes Chef BoyRDee ABC Meatballs.

And for our precious little baby boy Travis; 9-12 mos clothing.

God Bless You For Blessing Our Kids! 🙂

Linda

 

Message for November 9 – It Starts with Us

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Yesterday morning, I was watching YouTube clips from I Stand Sunday, a rally that was held in support of the Houston pastors defending their rights.  I was inspired.  It was delightful to see such a diverse group of pastors standing together for what they believe.  I encourage you to go search for the videos.  AFA has posted them all to YouTube.

However, the most important message of that night was not about standing for rights or demanding justice.  The thing we all need to hear is that it starts with us.  Thank God for the freedoms we enjoy in this nation.  Our Constitution has provided for the best government man can devise, but therein lies the problem.  Man devised it.  I believe that God was with us, but as long as we run things, we will mess them up. We’ve done just that.

How then can I say that it starts wiht us?  By “us” I mean the people of God.  Several references were made to 2 Chronicles 7:14.  We should always use caution and look at the context when we single out bits of scripture.  This one was written to the nation of Israel.  It is a message from God to King Solomon after he has built and dedicated Yahweh’s temple in Jerusalem. I think we should read verse 13 whenever we read verse 14.  God is speaking to a nation that will fall away and entered a period of judgment.  The pattern has already been repeating itself since the time the people of Israel left Egypt.  And so it goes with us.

This is a message to Israel, but the truth is transcendent.  We too are His people who are called by His name.  I believe that we are entering a time of judgment shortly if it has not already begun.  In that day, He does not call upon those who do not know Him to humble themselves and pray.  How can they?  He calls upon His people, called by His name, to humble themselves and pray, turning from their wicked ways.

It is the church who must repent.  It is the church who must speak the truth.  It is the church who must remember the God who saved us, a God of love, yes, but also a God of justice.  We sing of His love and mercy.  We ask His help in time of trouble.  Yet we do not obey Him, and we wonder why He doesn’t answer.  We lament the problems of our country and of the world, but how can it be anything but dark if we are not lighting it up?

I hope you’ll come and join us, because I believe this is God’s message across this nation for this time.

Message for October 19 – What Now?

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It is with great excitement that I write to you today. We’ve had so many wonderful things happening in the church lately.  People have rededicated their lives to Jesus.  People have come to know him for the first time.  Jesus told us that the angels in Heaven rejoice at this (Luke 15.)  We rejoice in this too!  It was a delight to welcome Mary Terrell as the latest addition to our family last week.  I confess I don’t remember much else about what happened in that service, but I remember that!

I’m sorry not to have this out sooner.  I’ve been working long hours and haven’t even had time to draft a complete outline, but I want to share some very basic things with you this week since we have so many making a fresh start.  Even for those who have been around a while, a few reminders never hurt, and we should all know how to help others mature in the faith.

Whether you’re a brand new believer or making your way back, you might have some questions like, “What happened?  Did anything really change?  What do I have to do now?  Isn’t my life supposed to get better?”  Let’s answer those questions together this Sunday.

21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Ephesians 4:21-24 NASB)

Praise and Prayer Requests from Sunday Service of October 5

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Pam is thankful for the rain and a new outfit. Ruth is looking forward to getting her sight restored. Karen thanks the Lord for having her tooth problemes fixed. Clark prraises God for improving health. Cindy is tthankful for a good week. ede is thankful for help removing a tree that fell on her house. Karen thanks God for His care over her friends after their house burnned.

Dede prays for a friend of her cousin Ringo, Tina, who had a heart aattack. Prray for Ruth as she has her surgery tomorrow at 1:00. Clark asks prayer for Mr. Ward whose health is worsening and has had several falls and mishaps this week. Kim prays for health and strength as she finishes her short term job. Brenda asks prayer for her daughter Sarah as she struggles through school. Linda asks prayer for our friend Sean, who lives inn Arkansas. Pray for his welfaer as he works through changes in his life. Pray for Richard who has had a health setback and doesn’t feel comfortable coming out in public. Pray also for Dana Tolley’s father, Richard who fell and broke bones in his face.

Please forgive any strange typos or missed items as I’m having a little trouble with my keyboard since the upgrade to my phone. Be a blessing this week.

Message for September 21 – Armed and Dangerous!

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Isn’t it delightful when the Lord takes over?  That’s what it felt like last Sunday at our homecoming celebration.  I hope we all got the message.  Priscilla told us that it’s time to act with urgency on the things God has told us to do, but as Pastor Jay said, we start with prayer so that we know what it is we are supposed to be doing.  It is a pleasure to see old friends, and as always the barbeque was great!

This week, I want to share with you from James 3:1-12. I don’t want to be overly dramatic.  We’re so used to hearing exaggerated speech these days that I think most of us tune it out.  And in a world full of violence, to equate mere words with flying bullets seems like just more over-the-top hyperbole trying and failing by its very nature to make the point.  Yet if more of us took the same care with our words as we would with a loaded gun, much pain and suffering could be avoided.  We all bear the wounds.  Time can heal them, but they always leave scars.  As you can never put the bullet back into the gun once it has been fired, you can never recall a word once spoken.

I hope you’ll join us next Sunday as we worship and learn together.

September, 7 2014 “what can you see?”

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I am sorry I am so late on this blog, it has been a crazy week. We did have a great service last week at BBT. Clark and Shelly shared their testimonies and showed us that God never gives up on us even when we give up on ourselves. Both Clarke and Shelly have gone done many hard roads, they have both done things they are not proud of but God has brought them to the place they are now. They have Peace because they have found forgiveness from their Heavenly Father and from his people. All of us have this same story, we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s righteousness but I hope you too have Peace that comes from forgiveness. Now it is time for us to start forgiving as well! Pastor Larry shared with us the story of Gideon. He shows us that God saw him as a great warrior even when he was hiding in a ditch. See God sees the greatness in all of us even when we don’t see it in our selves. Be the person God sees you, not who the worlds says you are!

This week I am going to talk about something that is really affecting us as a church right now. Last week Ruth’s doctor said she could no longer drive due to her eyesight. I know how hard this was for her as she is constantly on the go for the people in this church. We have known a lot about blindness. Pastor Larry is blind as well as several of our members; we allow the Blind Christian fellowship to meet at our church every month. We see what blindness can do but we also see what a blind person can do.The scripture verse this week is John 9th Chapter vs 1-11. Jesus is talking to and healing a blind man who was blind from birth.  I am not going to talk about physical blindness this week but I want to talk about our spiritual eyes. It is for more important in Gods kingdom to have our spiritual eyes open the than our physical eyes. In our physical sight no one makes the choice to be blind, but many of us make the choice to be spiritual blind, why is that? I don’t think we deliberately choose to be spiritual blind, perhaps some do, but most of us just don’t want to see what our spiritual eyes reveal to us. To open our spiritual eyes we will see what God has for us and demands from us, we will not be able to ignore our faith but stand up for it. I hope you will be in church this week as we talk about “what can we see.”

Please pray for those mentioned in our prayer request this week and invite someone to come and join us on Sunday. Do great things in God’s name and we will see you on Sunday!

We love you so much

Pastor David and Pris

Message for August 31 – Mission Possible II

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I’m so excited by the things God is doing in our church.  It is such a joy to see new faces and some not so new that God has brought back to us.  We have a mission, and last Sunday Priscilla reminded us that we can’t sit in the pews and wait for it to happen.  We need to get to work!  Pastor David showed us how to stop worrying and trust in Jesus.  If you missed it, check out our podcast page or follow the links on the Media page.

This Sunday,we will get to hear testimonies from Doug and Clarke during the Sunday school time.  It’s always a delight to hear how God changes lives.  Then I will be looking at the next in the series of deliverers that God gave to Israel.  Every time they would fall back into sin, God would allow an enemy to overcome them.  But when they cried out to Him, he sent a deliverer.  That’s just what He does now, and that deliverer is Jesus.  All the others point to Him.

This time we’ll talk about Gideon.  You might remember that he is the one who defeated a huge army with just 300 men, but was extremely unsure of God’s message at the beginning.  He repeatedly asked God to confirm his assignment with signs, the most famous being that of the fleece.  Gideon hardly seems like the man for the job, hiding in a hole when God first calls him, but look at how the angel addresses him in Judges 6:12, “”The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior.”

Sometimes there’s a big difference between what we see and what God sees when he looks at us.  All we can see is the visible and the present.  God sees what will be.  Thus he looked at that man hiding from the enemy in a hole and saw a mighty man of valor.  God sees you as you will be, and He has a mission for you!  I hope you will be inspired by Gideon’s story to prepare your heart and be ready to accept it.

Come and join us!

Message for August 17 – Mission Possible!

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It was great to see so many people with us last Sunday!  God is doing wonderful things in our church and I can’t wait to see what comes next.  We’re always encouraged by the Sunday school time with Priscilla, and Pastor David showed us through Jesus’ example how we should serve each other.  He challenged us to act on it.  We do have a lot of servants in our church.  The nature of what we do demands it.  But as he said, we can always do better.  I challenge even those of us who may think there’s nothing we can do to find ways of modeling what Jesus did.  It’s only in doing what God made us to do that wee will find true meaning and purpose for our lives.

This Sunday, you get two for one.  We’re going to talk about two people once again delivered Israel after they had fallen into sin, been judged for it, and then called out to God.  Deborah was a judge and a prophetess.  Barack was the man she called to raise an army and defeat the king who was oppressing Israel.  You’ll find the story in Judges 4.  When we’re done, I hope we will all see that when God gives you a mission, it doesn’t matter who you are.  He will provide the power to make the mission more than possible.  It will be accomplished!

Sunday August 10, 2014 ” Will you be a servant and to whom?”

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We had a great day at church last Sunday at BBT.  Pris led us in a Sunday school lesson on how we need to be there for each other.  We do not want people to think we do not care and it takes more than just words to show people we really care about them.  We need to put our words into action and make an effort to make people feel like they matter.  God goes to great length to make us feel loved, what do we do to make people feel that they really matter?  I really felt like I need to do more, I think we all do.  Tim brought a message asking us are we crazy?  He explained if you are sold out to God the world will sure think you are.  The question was asked what are you doing? He was not talking about this in general he was asking what are you doing with your life? Are you making a difference in this world?  Are you making a difference in your on life?  This is a great question that needs a great answer.  I was so proud of Tim as he brought his first message here at BBT.  I will make sure he gets more chances!  Follow Tim’s lead here, If there is something that God is calling you to do don’t just sit back and see if it works out, step up and do what God is calling you to do.  I guarantee God has something special for you to do.

This week I want to kind of follow up with Tim’s message and talk about what is really important to you.  We live in a society that being a servant is not something we strive to be.  Why not?  Was not that exactly what Jesus did and preached while he was here?  Being a servant does not mean you are a doormat for the world.  It means you care more about other people than you care about yourself.  I was reading in John this week and I came across the story where Jesus was washing the feet of the disciples.  He was not just doing this because he wanted the show them how they are suppose to act, he did it because he LOVED them.  Jesus did not just die on the cross to fulfill the prophecy that had been written, he did it because he LOVES us.  Please read the story in John the 13Th chapter starting with vs 1 thru 17.  There is a great lesson here as well as a great expression of love between Jesus and his disciples.  I hope you will join us Sunday as we see what God wants us to see in this story.

Please pray for those mentioned in our prayer request this week and I want you to think about the challenge Pris gave us last Sunday.  She ask us to pray this week and let God put someone on your heart then reach out and call them, send them a card or letter, something to let them know you were thinking about the.  We all want to feel like we are needed and that someone really cares about us.  I want them to know that God cares about them but I also want them to know we care as well.  If you do this I promise you will have a praise report on Sunday saying what a great feeling it was to be part of God’s ministry.  We will see you on Sunday!!!

We love you so much,

Pastor David & Pris

Sunday August 3, 2014 “Special guest speaker”

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It was so nice to see all of you in church last week, especially those who were here for the first time and several people who had been out for a while.  I hope you will make plans to be with us every week as things are really going on at BBT.

This week we have a special guest speaker. He will be with us for the first time behind the pulpit but he is very much a part of BBT.  I hope you will make plans on being with us on Sunday at 2:30 pm and bring a friend with you.

One Saturday afternoon, (a date to be announced) in August we will be showing the movie “God is not Dead”.  There are several very good Christian movies out and I hope to start have a movie night once a month.  We will watch the movie than we will discuss what we got out of the movie.  I think this will be a great chance to fellowship as well as discovering something God has to show you.  We have several sight impaired members at the church and I don’t want to leave you out on this, I think you will enjoy what you hear and I hope we can help you understand what happened in each movie.

Keep praying for this ministry and keep praying for each other.  There was a sad note this week, Clark and Shelly’s granddaughter baby’s father was murdered this week.  I don’t know a lot of the details but I am asking that you remember this family in your prayers.  I hope you have a blessed week and we cant wait to see you again.  Call us if we can do anything for you.  May God bless you and we will see you Sunday!!!

We love you so much,

Pastor David & Pris