Sunday June 9th, 2013 “Who do you trust”

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
We had a great day in Church to start off the month of June!  I can’t believe the year is almost half way over.  It is really exciting to be part of the new life that is developing at BBT.  I spoke to Kelly this week and she is back in Mesquite and looking for an apartment.  She wants to come to church on Sunday and see everyone. I hope she can make it.

This week I had an experience where I have paid some money on line and never got the product.  It made me think, who can you trust?  Do we, as American people trust our Government, or our banking system our education system even our friends, do we trust anybody anymore? Maybe our money is right we trust in God but it ends there.  Do we still trust God?  We cannot live in this society without trust in something, but if someone hurts us we may forgive them but it is a whole other thing to ever trust them again?

This week’s scripture is found in Galatians 1 vs 11-24.  Paul is running into this problem with people trusting him after they learn about his past.  There are some people who will not trust us ever again no matter what we do but face it we have all made mistakes; we can change with God’s help.  Paul is trying to convince them why they should trust him now.  I hope you will be with us in church on Sunday and lets discuss when do we know a person has changed.  I hope you will invite someone to come with you and lets look at this lesson together.

Please continue to pray for this ministry ever day.  We are going to see what God has for us and when we do we will receive the blessings that go along with all our hard work. For the rest of this week I want you to try to be more trusting.  You may find that a person has changed and just needs someone to believe in them.  Be that person!  We love you all so much and I can’t wait to see you on Sunday, till then keep doing the good things in your life and ask God to help you remove the bad. He loves you so much!

Pastor David & Pris

 

Sunday June 2nd 2013 “What moves Jesus in our Lives?”

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
We had a great day in church last week.  We missed Joel and his group as they were not able to come, but we are looking forward to them getting to come on the 23rd of June.  I am so excited about what God is doing but I know we have to be available to be used by God.  I am sorry this is so late this week but I have been in bed since Monday with an infection in my leg.  I wish I could say this is getting better but it seems it is happening more and more as I get older.  This is truly my thorn in my side.

It was really nice to see Luann back last week after being out for so long, she has grown into a beautiful young lady.  It was nice to see Larry’s mom and dad visiting with us again as well. I hope you had a thankful Memorial day.

This week I want to talk to you about how our Faith can heal us.  We know God wants the very best for us and his desire is not for us to suffer but to prosper.  What must we do to cause God to pour out his mercy?  I am going to read from Luke the 7Th chapter in verses 1-10. This is the story of a Roman centurion who is pleading for the life of his servant.  I want to look at these versus on Sunday and see what Jesus is trying to show us in these scripture.  Why was this servant healed? Of course Jesus willing it is what healed the servant, but why?  I think the caring, the character and the confidence of the centurion are what moved Jesus to answer his plea’s.  I think we need to look at this formula and apply this to our lives as well. Please join us on Sunday and invite a friend to come with you.

I certainly hope I am going to be better by Sunday and I can share this message with you.  Please pray for me that I will get over this quickly.  Remember to pray for the ones mentioned in our prayer request last week and if you have a special prayer request please call me and let me pray with you. Keep doing good things and we WILL see you on Sunday.

We love you so much,
Pastor David & Pris

 

Sunday May 26, 2013 “This is your life, or is it?”

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
We had a great service on Sunday and I am looking forward to this week,  but this week we felt the pain of so many people in Oklahoma that lost friends and family and homes.  It is hard to understand why these things happen, but I know God is going to help them to get through this.  I did not plan on preaching this week but Joel and his group will not get to be here this month, so I wanted to look at the occurrences of this week and see what we need to do when Life throws us for a loop.  It is hard to comfort people when they are so devastated but that is our job as disciples to comfort the hurting and morn with the morning.

This week I chose a scripture in the Gospel of Mark the 13Th chapter versus 1 and 2.  The disciples were amazed as they looked at the Temple. They marveled at how big and beautiful it was.  It was the center of the Jewish faith.  In these scriptures Jesus says soon there will not be anything left of this temple, not a single stone.  Jesus was showing them that things can change very quickly and you need to be prepared for it.  That is a lesson we learned this week. The things we take for granite can be taken away in the blink of an eye.  When this happens what do we do?  I want us to understand what we must do when trouble comes and how we can get over the things that turn our lives upside down.  It is something you know but I want you to hear it again and I want you to be able to share it with others.  I hope you will join us this week as we look at what we do when our lives tumble in.

We did have great news this week.  We all prayed for Ruth this week as she was waiting on the biopsy taken last week. The doctors were afraid the mass might be cancer, but praise God it was just scar tissue.  Our God still does miracles for us every day, and Ruth cannot stop praising him for it. I hope you will keep the people or Oklahoma in your prayers this week.  We may not be there with then physically but our prayers can reach them when they need it most.  I hope you will remember to tell your love ones how much you love them. Don’t assume life will just go on as is because life can change very quickly, be prepared.  We will see you on Sunday, have a great week and invite someone to come with you on Sunday.

We love you daily

Pastor David & Pris

 

Message for May 19 – The Wonder of Pentecost

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
Hello friends and family.  I pray this finds you well and that you all blessed your mothers in whatever way you could yesterday.  We had a good time at church celebrating together, but we missed the ones who couldn’t be with us.  Many were out celebrating with their own families though, and that’s a good thing.

Next Sunday is Pentecost Sunday.  We celebrate it seven weeks after Resurrection Sunday.  When Pastor David made a point of the day, I thought maybe he wanted me to stick to the theme, but I think I misunderstood.  However when I started to look into the significance of Pentecost I was overjoyed to see how it was that God fit everything together so that we would have no doubt that Jesus is the promised messiah and His Holy Spirit the sign of our relationship with Him.  We’ll read from the second chapter of Acts and explore what it means for us today.  I’m excited to share it with you and I hope you will come and be blessed!

 

Sunday May 12, 2013 ” A Mothers Comfort”

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

What a special Day Sunday will be. As we celebrate Mother’s day we have the chance to tell these very special ladies how much we love them. I hope your Mother is still alive and you are able to make her feel special.  Mother’s are not perfect, nor or Father’s but I pray that you can have that special relationship that only exists between a parent and a child.

This week I am going to finish up in the Gospel of John and I am going to read from my favorite chapter, John 14: vs 15-31. On this special day I want to show us how much Jesus is like our Mothers.  I know we call God our heavenly Father, but there is something in God that are all about Mother’s.  In these few versus we are going to see what a comfort Jesus is to his disciples.  Who is more comforting than a Mother? I am very excited to bring this message this week and I hope you and your family will be with us on this special day.

I hope you will spend some time with your Mother’s this weekend.  I wish I still had a Mother around but I have Ruth that is like my Mother, I have a terrific wife and so many wonderful friends and family members.  I am truly blessed.  I hope you are blessed as well.  If you want to feel that kind of love join us every Sunday at BBT!  Please keep spreading the word and remember you are not alone you have Christ in you and you are powerful beyond your wildest dreams.  Do great things and I will see you on Sunday.  Have a great Mothers day to all the Mothers everywhere!!!

We love you so much

Pastor David & Pris

 

Sunday May 5, 2013 “Can you hear me now?”

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
We had a great day in Church last week; it was a short service but good one.  I enjoyed the time I got to spend with you and I am looking forward to seeing you again this week.  Pris was sorry she was not able to be there to teach the Sunday School but she is feeling better now and hopes to be back in church on Sunday.  I hope you will be with us as we start off the month of May.

This week I am staying in the Gospel of John I will be in John 5 Vs 1-9.  This is the story of man who had an infirmity for 38 years.  Jesus saw the man and asked him “Do you want to be made whole?”  What a question, that was what he wanted more than anything in life and now Jesus was offering it to him.  This man had given up because he had no help.  But Jesus shows he was his help, he was the one that could heal him.  He was all he needed.  I am going to talk this week about hearing God.  Sometimes we feel we have no help and we have no hope, just like this man felt.  I want you to know you do have hope because the same Jesus this healed this man is the same Jesus we serve today.  We have to be able to hear him.  Not only does God want to speak to us he wants to speak through us.  We talked last week about “See something, Say something, Do something, Be something.” That is what God wants us to do.  When God speaks to us through other people, or maybe in our dreams, or the words to a song, or through the scripture or if it is just a thought that comes into your head, God wants you to hear him.  Sometimes he is speaking to encourage you,  to give you strength; sometimes he speaks to have you give his message to another.  What ever he has for you, you need to hear it.  I hope you will be in church on Sunday and see what God has for you.  He always shows up he is waiting on you.

Thank you for all your prayers this week for Pris, she really does appreciate them.  We all need the prayers of others.  We all need help and we all need to be helpers.  We all can hear from God.  We all have a purpose and we all have a job to do. Sometimes it is to encourage others sometimes it is to be encouraged by someone else.  We need each other.  We need to love others as Christ loves us.  I hope you have a great week. I hope you get to pray for someone this week and I hope someone will pray for you this week.  Do great things in the name of Jesus and we will see you on Sunday!

We love you so much

Pastor David & Pris

 

Sunday April 28,2013 “See something, Say Something, Do Something, Be Something”

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
What a great time we had last week in church at BBT.  Larry and Linda led us in Sunday school and in the worship service.  It was really encouraging to see that we are not the only people struggling with problems and unanswered questions.  I hope you will put in to practice the art of being an encourager. It is important to try and lift the spirits of others because I promise you, if you take the focus off of yourself you will see that you really are truly blessed and you have a lot to give.

I hope to continue this train of thought this week as we look back at the Gospel of John  the 13Th chapter starting in the 31st verse and going through verse 35.  Jesus had just had the last supper with his disciples and had washed their  feet.  He had sent Judas to go do what he must do and now in these verses Jesus is telling them what he wants them to do when he is gone.  He says it is a new commandment, it will separate you from everybody else.  Isn’t that what we want in life, not just be part of the group but something different, something special.  Jesus says I love you, now I want you to Love other people. Follow my example, do what I do, and if you do this people will know who you are and who you serve.  It is important for us to stand out.  Not so the world will look at us and say how great we are, but how great is he that we serve.  We should not be satisfied with just sitting back and blending in.  The way to stand out is the stand up. If you see something then say something then do something then you can be something.  I hope you will be in church this week and lets see something, say something, do something and be something.

Remember those mentioned in our prayer request last week.  One of the ways we love someone is to pray for them.  We may not have a lot of earthly resources but we have the power of Jesus living inside of us and with him nothing is impossible. Love your family and friends today like you may never get to see them again and reach out to a stranger and make a difference in another person’s life.  You have the ability to do it, just choose it.  We are excited to see you on Sunday and share what we have.  May God bless you this week and may his grace and mercy go with you!

We love you so much!!!!

Pastor David & Pris

 

Message for April 21 – What Do You See?

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
Hello friends and family.  I hope you have been rejoicing in God’s blessing this week and passing it around.  We had a great time last Sunday.  We always love to see visitors, and we welcomed a new member to the church.

Then on Monday we watched in disbelief as terrorists set off bombs at the Boston Marathon.  Wednesday night right here in Texas a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant has killed several, injured many more, and destroyed or damaged property for 5 blocks around the plant.  Why did this happen?  Why does any bad thing happen?  Eventually we may learn who set off those bombs and what happened at that plant, but we’re asking deeper questions.  We might be asking more specifically, “why did God let it happen?”

Just Monday morning I read Psalm 34.  We are told in the introduction that this psalm was written during a time when the future king David had fled his own country to avoid being killed by the jealous King Saul, whom he had faithfully served.  He was hiding out with Israel’s mortal enemies, the philistines.  He was afraid of that king too so he pretended to be crazy.  That way the king would not consider him a threat.

You might think at this point that David would be angry and discouraged.  We know from other psalms that sometimes he did feel that way, but that isn’t what he expresses here.  This psalm is an expression of praise to Yahweh from beginning to end.  David could have looked at his circumstances, but instead he chose to focus on the Lord.

There is a lesson here for us.  David acknowledged that troubles abounded, but he knew the One who was able to deliver him.  He says in verse 19, “Many are the distresses of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all.” (LEB)  Let’s look at this wonderful psalm together and see what we can learn.

 

Sunday April 14, 2013 “Do You Love Me”

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
We had another great Sunday in church this week and I hope this is just the beginning of many great things to come at BBT.  Pris shared some dreams and visions for the church.  I hope we can get started with these ideas right away.  There is so much to be looking forward to, I hope you are excited as I am.

This week I am going to stay in the Gospel of John 21: 1-19. As I speak to you this week I am going to look at this scripture from the viewpoint of Peter.  I am going to try and think like Peter thought and try to imagine what Peter was feeling.  There is so much of Peter in all of us.  I know there are many Christians today who feel they have hopelessly lost the favor of Christ. We have messed up so much, how can Jesus trust us anymore, we don’t even trust ourselves.  This had to be the way Peter was feeling here, in fact I think Peter had given up and was ready to go back to his old life of fishing.  Peter learns a lesson here that we need to learn as well. Jesus did not give up on Peter and he has not given up on us.  We must not give up.  I hope you will be in Church on Sunday as we fellowship with one another in God’s House.

Please pray for those that are hurting this week, our prayer request last week had several people who are really struggling, they need our prayers and they need a touch from God.  That is where we come in, regardless of your condition we can pray.  We can pray the prayer of Hope and Joy, even if that is not what we feel like physically. God wants our praise and he wants to hear that we love him with everything we have.  We are excited about the coming things to BBT and it starts on Sunday.  Keep doing great things in the name of Christ.  I hope to see you Sunday!!!

We love you so much,

Pastor David & Pris

 

Sunday April 7, 2013 ” Believe and be Blessed”

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
We were able to celebrate another Easter service at BBT last week.  God has been so good to us and his mercy endures forever.  We had communion and Larry brought the message.  I was in the back making lunch and have not had a chance to listen to the message but everyone tells me it was inspiring.  I think God for Larry and Linda and all the members who were part of the service last week.  A dear friend, Diane, who provided Easter baskets for all our members, also blessed us.  It was really special.  It was so good to see some familiar faces we have not seen in a while.  It really was a very special day.

This week I am going to speak to you from the Gospel of John the 20Th chapter and vs 24-29.  This is the story of Thomas, one of Jesus disciples, who needed to be convinced that Jesus had been raised from the dead.  We as Christians today want God to prove to us that he is real.  We want him to do something undeniable that proves he exists. Jesus message in this scripture is not about Thomas, but about the people who are blessed and we have not seen.  The truth of the matter is God wants us to believe without having hard proof to hold in our hands.  He wants us to have faith, and once we have it, we have enough. We don’t need anything else.  Our faith is our proof.  True Faith will allow us to believe even when we can’t see it.  We believe God is in control when all hell is breaking loose around us.  We can walk through the shadow of death because our Faith sustains us and we are comforted in KNOWING that we are going to spend eternity with Christ.  I hope you will be in church this week and lets be blessed because we believe!

Keep praying for those of our members that are having health problems, finical problems, spiritual problems, and relationship problems.  God did not promise life would be easy. For some of you suffer more than others but remember, Joy will come in the morning. We will get through and we will be blessed because we have the Faith to believe it so.

I am excited about seeing you on Sunday.  Lets have as many on the Sunday after Easter as we did on Easter.  I can dream right?

We Love you so much!!

Pastor David & Pris