Bartimaeus Baptist Temple

It will be great to be part of BBT in 2012.  I have missed services over the last 2 weeks but I hope you had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year’s Day.  As we start a new year at BBT we have a lot of great memories to look back on in 2011.  We have also shared some tragic moments together as well.  That is the way life is. There will be times of Joy and times of sadness; there will be moments of hill top experiences and moments of valley dwelling.  It is the time we spend in the valley that will tell us how strong is our faith.  We will learn more from our trials then we will from our victories.  We need our victories and we realize they are not really our victories but God’s, but we need them. We need to see our prayers answered and we need to see God working in our lives but the truth of the matter is God is ALWAYS working in our lives. As we have talked about so much in 2011 God is closer to us in out troubles then any other time.  We need God always and we especially need him in our most darkest time.  My desire for 2012 is to be closer to God then in 2011.  That means I will need to be prepared to see God working in my life when people around me may see the absence of God. I pray that I will learn from what God has for me and we as a church will be closer to each other and closer to God then we have ever been in our lives.

I am excited about getting back in the pulpit this next week and I want to share some more of what I believe God has for us in 2012.  I want to talk about the “defining moments” in our lives.  The scripture this week comes from Luke the 2ND chapter starting with vs. 25 through vs. 32.  This is the story of a man named Simon that sees baby Jesus for the first time. He has spent his life looking for the Messiah and God had promised him he would see him before he died. What has God promised us?

There are many new resolutions we can make for this new year but only the ones we keep will benefit us.  Lets not make empty promises that we can’t keep but lets also commit ourselves to the things that mean something to us.  I want you to share this Sunday some resolutions that mean something to you.  Remember when you say it out loud in front of others you are making your intentions known.  Be brave,  be bold,  be accountable.

This week we will also start a chance to share how we feel about somebody in the church.  If you would like to share this week call me and let me know.  Keep praying for each other, think good thoughts about your fellow Christians and do good things for the people you meet.  You can make a difference and never know it.  We love you and can’t wait to see you on Sunday.

Pastor David & Pris

We had a great day at BBT on Sunday.  Sandra Hart had a guest, Pam, to help explain some question about Medicaid and Medicare prior to our services. She was very informative and had various handouts for us.  Sandra also gave tickets to anyone who brought a guest and Jana ended up winning a nice prize in the drawing.  We had a very good group and we had several familiar faces back this week.  Linda brought the Sunday school lesson on “myth-busters” about Christmas.  Larry brought the sermon on Prayer.  All in all it was a great day at Bartimaeus.

This week will be our Christmas party given to us by Heights Church.  We are so excited about seeing this great group of people back in our church.  They will have gifts for the members and food for the party.  The “Senior Moments” will be back this week to sing our favorite Christmas songs. I know we will have another good group in church as we celebrate the birth of OUR KING.  Service is going to start this week and this week only at 2PM.

This will be the last time we will be together before the end of the year.  I hope you will take some time and remember how God blessed you in 2011 and what you can do in 2012.  I hope you have a great Christmas and happy New Year.  Remember to pray for those we mention in prayer request last week and lets pray for this country.  We have a responsibility to do what we can and we can always lift this nation up in our prayers.  I am excited to see you on Sunday as we have a birthday party for Jesus.  We love you and want the very best for you and we speak blessings on you daily.

Pastor David & Priss

The weather has changed and winter is here.  I hope we don’t have as much cold weather this winter as we had  hot weather this summer, but whatever we have we will be blessed.  Speaking of being blessed we had a blessing on Sunday.  There was not as many of us in church but we were really able to minister to one another especially during our prayers at the end of Sunday school.  I hope you will make plans to be in church this week because I promise if you come someone is going to bless you.

This week is about Christmas and we are going to talk about “Christmas is a God thing.”  The scripture verses this week are found in Luke the 1st chapter and verses 26-38.  It is the story about God’s angel coming to Mary and telling her about what God was about to do.  We are going to talk about why God had to do this for us.  I hope you had a great Thanksgiving last week and I hope you are looking forward to the Christmas season ahead.  Keep your priorities in order this season, enjoy the music the lights and gathering together with family and friends but remember Christmas is a God thing.  We are celebrating God coming down and being part of us in his son Jesus Christ.  Remember the question I asked you last week:  “Where would I be without God in my life?”  Here is another question  “Where would we be if Jesus had not left heaven and came to us as a baby in a manager?”

We have so much to be grateful for as we live each day of our lives under the watchful eye of a caring and loving father.  I hope you enjoy the life God is giving you and I hope you will share it with us.  We need you in our lives, and God wants you in his.  Be sure and check in on the prayer request posted on our website and let me give you a prayer request of my own.  My sister called us this morning and my brother in law may be about to lose his foot due to diabetes.  They are going to the doctor today and see if his foot can be saved. Please pray the doctors can do something to save his foot.  We love you all so much that the question I am asking is “What would I do without all of you?” I know my life would not be as full and blessed without each and every one of you in our lives.  We will see you on Sunday and lets do good things for the people God brings us into our lives this week.

Pastor David & Pris

I want to thank everyone for the great time we had last week.  I appreciate every one of you and am looking forward to many years of worshiping together at BBT.  I think last week was not just a appreciation Sunday for me but it was a celebration of this church and what it means to all of us.  I can’t believe the hard work and the dedication from the members of this church.  I want to thank Larry for bringing the message last week on how do we handle our anger.  It was very insightful.  I want to thank all those that helped prepare the meal afterwards, it was terrific!  I really want to thank you for all the nice things said last week and I hope you know how much we love you as well.

This week Chuck Cagel and the “Senior Moments” will be here to sing some Thanksgiving hymns that we love so much.  I am going to preach on  “What is important to God”.  The scripture verses this week will be Matthew 25: 31-46.  This is a parable that Jesus is sharing with his disciples & others on this subject.  We have read this many times and I have preached on this scripture before but it is very important that we understand what our responsibilities are here on this earth.  I hope you will be with us this week as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving.  I hope you will stop during this season and really thank about what you have to be thankful for.

Please continue to pray for those that need our help and lets be there for the people that need us.  We will enjoy this season if we will take our eyes off ourselves and look at the person in front of you.  I bet you can find some good things about this person and maybe see Christ in everyone.  We love being part of this ministry and we are looking forward to see you on Sunday.  May God keep you and bless you and we will be praying for those that are going to be traveling this holiday.

Pastor David & Pris

Hello BBT family and friends.  I sure hate that we missed seeing you last week.  I know you’ll be glad to hear that Linda is much better today and we look forward to seeing you this Sunday.  Our pastor appreciation dinner will be held this Sunday since Pastor David was sick when we originally scheduled it.  As he mentioned we will not have the Sunday school time so that we can be done before dark.  We can also consider this our Thanksgiving celebration, since that holiday is close at hand and we have much to be thankful for.

As you will have guessed already by the fact that I’m writing this week’s post, I will bring the message.  I would like to discuss something we’re all personally familiar with.  No one has to teach us.  We’re born with it and it usually takes only a few months after that for it to show.  It’s not sin, though the same could be said of sin and sin is often not far behind.  I’m talking about anger.

Ephesians 4:26-27 says, “BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.”  Jesus got angry, so it can’t be a sin just to be angry, but anger often leads to sin.  Why do we get angry?  Is there ever a place for it?  What should we do when we feel it?  Let’s examine God’s word for the answers.  Come join us!