Sunday April 8 2012 ” Crying at the tomb “

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
I hope all of you are O.K. after all the hurricane activity on Tuesday. I can’t remember when there was so much activity all over the city, not just one area.  Millions of dollars in damage but no deaths.  That is amazing. As I watched the coverage on the news it reminds me what an uncertain world we live in. Please be praying for the injured and those that lost property.

One thing is certain we had a great time Sunday at BBT.  I want to thank Linda and Pam for the recap on the series “Not a Fan”. I hope we can have more testimony of how we have become a better follower of Christ. This week is Easter.  What a celebration we will have on Sunday.  Pris will bring the Sunday school lesson and I am going to bring a message about what Mary Magdalene and two of the disciples did when they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.  The scripture verse this week will be found in the Gospel of John the 20Th chapter vs 1-18.  I want us to see how they reacted when they found the tomb empty.  Were they excited? Or were they disturbed?  Did they run and tell the others or did they just go about their business?  I want us to see what it meant to these few people and how they handled the news Jesus was no longer in the tomb.  We know what it means for us today. It is the reason we are celebrating on Sunday.  Were they celebrating?  Had not Jesus told them this is exactly what was going to happen? I hope you will join us in Church on this Easter Sunday and I hope you will invite someone to come along with you.  After the service we will have Easter dinner in the fellowship hall and we have Easter baskets for every family.  What a great time for fellowship and worship at BBT.

Have you heard from God lately?  I hope you are putting into practice the art of listing to God and obeying his instructions.  Keep reading the Word, keep praying for those that are hurting and help those you can.  God can make you a blessing to someone if you will let him and in return maybe someone will be a blessing to you.  You will be blessed if you are a blessing.  Do good things in the name of the Lord and we can’t wait to see you to celebrate the resurrection on Sunday!!  Know you are loved.

Pastor David & Pris

 

Sunday April 1, 2012 “After the Parade”

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
What a great day we had in Church last week.  We had a great time of sharing and receiving in Sunday school and I enjoyed sharing with you about how we can hear God.  We missed those who were not able to be there but I am excited about the upcoming service this week.

We missed Joel and Dana last week but they will be back in April.  Also in April I have friend that is a youth pastor at Freeman Heights Baptist Church who wants to come and bring his youth group to minister to us one week in April.  I have not confirmed yet with pastor Will Gibson but I know he is anxious to let his youth get out in the mission field and start doing good things for God.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday as well as April Fools, the national holiday for Atheist. Sorry I could not resist it.  This Week I am going to be talking about the time leading up to the crucifixion.  The scripture verse this week is Found in Mark 11: 1-11.  I am going to talk about the Commitment, the Courage, and the Compassion in Jesus as he prepares to suffer and die for you and me.  I am amazed at how Jesus loved me so much that he would lay down his life for me.  I am so unworthy but I am also so grateful.  I hope you have the same emotions.  Please make plans for being in church Sunday and invite someone to come with you.

I hope you have practiced at hearing God this week.  I hope you will be able to share something you heard from God this week.  I will get the prayer list posted this week and I hope if you have something you want us to pray about you will call me.  My family needs your prayers this week as we are struggling with a problem in our close family.  I am afraid this could really put a barrier up in our family and we really need your prayers.  Larry and Linda also need our prayers in their family as well. Please keep believing in this ministry and what God has for you and be prepared to go where he sends you to go.  You will be blessed.  We love you and can’t wait to see you in Church on Sunday

Pastor David & Pris

 

Sunday March 25th 2012 ” Is that thunder I hear?”

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
It is so good to be back home in Texas.  We had a great trip but only I can get caught in the desert in a snow storm.  I missed being with you but it was nice to travel with our friends. I hope you enjoyed Church and I am anxious to hear the last lesson on discipleship and the sermon Larry brought.

We were suppose to have Joel and his group with us Sunday but they are involved in their Church this week, so you will have to put up with me again.  Easter is just a week away. Leading up to that I looked at the week of the celebration of Passover leading up to the Crucifixion of Christ.  The scripture is the gospel of John chapter 12 vs 20-33.  We are going to talk about hearing God.  As a disciple we must be able to hear God and act on his direction, as Larry talked about last week, there will be a lot of people who think they are doing what is required of them but are they really.  Can you hear God or do you just hear the thunder?  I want us to be Gods people following Gods direction.  We can not do that if all we do is go through the motions of being a disciple.  We need to hear from God.  I hope you will be in church Sunday and celebrate Passover with us as we celebrate the Lord’s supper.

Thank you so much for praying for us last week. As I was sitting in my room Sunday afternoon I really felt your prayers, as I knew you were meeting together in worship.  I feel so fortunate to be a part of this ministry.  I hope you feel the same.  I want to thank all of you for what you mean to my family.  Ruth did not get to go out of town this week.  I know she miss the chance to visit her family but she says she will get to go around Thanksgiving but I am thankful she will be in Church on Sunday. Want to hear God this week? If someones name comes to you this week and you feel like this person needs something, act on it, call them, go by and see them just don’t ignore the opportunity to minister to them as God has chosen you to minister to that person.  Keep praying for those that are sick and hurting and invite someone to come to church with you on Sunday!!  We will see you then.

Pastor David & Pris

 

Message for March 18 – Get Real

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”  (Matt 7:21-23)

I don’t know about you, but when I read that, I can’t help feeling just a little uncomfortable.  After all, don’t’ the people Jesus is talking about here sound like pretty amazing Christians?  How many people do you know who go around casting out demons and performing miracles in the name of Jesus?  How many of them are sane?  Don’t misunderstand me.  Jesus gave us the power to do those things when they fall within His plan, but I don’t think He has much to do with some of the things we see.

Yet it would seem these folks are really committed.  If Jesus would say to them, “I never knew you,” what would He say to me?  Never mind the showy stuff.  I wonder if I even get the basics right.  Do I pray enough?  Do I study the Bible enough?  How many have I helped to come to Jesus?

I’m so thankful that He is love.  He needs all those attributes that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13 just to put up with me.  The amazing thing is that He doesn’t see it that way.  He doesn’t have to try to love us.  That is who He is.

We’re wrapping up a six week study designed to help us move from being merely fans of Jesus to being true followers.   I hope we have come to see that it means we will have to make some changes in our lives.  Why?  It’s not because we didn’t’ check off all the to-dos in our holy day planner.  It’s not that we missed church last Sunday or didn’t put anything in the offering plate.  It’s that we haven’t paid enough attention to what He really wants.  He may want us to do those other things, but He wants our love first.

When we love someone, we do everything we can to please them.  We don’t do it because we’re afraid of what will happen if we don’t.  We do it because it brings us joy to make them happy.  We sacrifice willingly, and their pleasure is our reward.  Jesus loved us so much that He gave His life for us.  Are we willing to love Him back that much?  It’s a choice we will have to make every day of our lives.

I hope you will join us as we wrap up our study.  Even if you haven’t been able to come for the last few weeks, I know that God has a message just for you this Sunday.  See you there!

 

Sunday March 11th, 2012 ” Responsible Living “

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
It was a great day at BBT on Sunday.  There were a few members back that had been out for a while.  It was nice to have such a good group in church on Sunday.  I am hoping for even more this week.  Linda brought the Sunday school lesson on Discipleship; this was lesson number 4 of 6.  She will finish up over the next 2 weeks and I hope you have enjoyed these classes as much as I have.  I cant wait to be back this week.

This week I am going back to the Old Testament, way back to Exodus 20 chapter verses 1-17.  This sermon is about how to live responsibly.  This is where God gave us our instruction on how. We may be under a new convenient but we still must be responsible people.  What does that mean? Why is it so hard to act responsibly some times?  What is our responsibility to be a follower of Christ?  Are we shirking our responsibility when it comes to do good things? Are we doing going things for the right reason?  I challenge you every week to do good things but what am I talking about? Do we place blame on others so not to take responsibility ourselves?  WOW there are a lot of questions that need to be asked, hopefully we will have some answers on Sunday.  Please be in Church Sunday and help me answer some of these questions.

Cindy got a good report from the doctor on Monday and she has another appointment next week.  Little Cindy is having her Surgery today and is to get to come home tomorrow if all goes well.  Lets pray it does.  Priss and me are going on vacation leaving Thursday the 15Th and Larry will have the service on the 18Th.  Please pray for us as we travel and we will see you back on the 25Th.  Keep praying for the renovations that we are beginning on the Church this week.  Pray for the ones in our congregation that are hurting and need our help. Hopefully Linda will have a less traumatic week this week and pray for her as she and Larry help in leading us in our ability to be better followers of Christ.  Keep doing good things, inviting others to come and visit us and pray for each other.  We will see you on Sunday.  We love you very much!

Pastor David & Priss

 

Sunday March 4, 2012 ” Do you know your place?”

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
I really did enjoy being in Church at BBT last week.  Joel brought his students to come and minister to us and his close friend Regina Rogers brought us a great message on Hope.  How many of the people we meet each day could use some of the Hope God gives.  In our study on discipleship I believe one of the great things we can do is to give that Hope to the ones we meet each day.  I love the Music and the message and I hope you were there to hear both.

This week my message is about  “Do you know your place?” we don’t like to think that we need to be put in our place but the fact of the matter is quite often we do.  The scripture verse I am going to use is Mark 8: 31-33.  In this scripture even the great disciple Peter forgot his place when speaking to Jesus.  We need to understand as FOLLOWERS of Christ our position is not to lead but to follow.  That is hard for many of us especially a pastor who thinks he is suppose to be “large and in charge”.  I hope you will be in church Sunday to see where is our place?

Let me remind you to call someone this week and invite them to Church Sunday.  We have a lot to offer and I can’t believe there are not people out there that are looking to find a place where they will be accepted just as they are.  Our goal is to be a follower of what Christ did while here on earth and He never rejected anyone because they were not good enough or smart enough or too young or too old.  The only ones he turned away were the ones that felt they needed no help.  We ALL need help and Christ gives us that Hope we talked about last week.  Pray for those that are hurting, rejoice with those that have been blessed and be in Church Sunday as we worship together again.  We love you and can’t wait to see you on Sunday.

Pastor David & Pris

 

Sunday February 26th

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
I am so grateful for all your prayers this week.  I hated not being in church Sunday but I appreciate that you were praying and thinking about me.  Your prayers have been answered and I feel much much better!  Thank you Don for driving the bus for me last week. I talked with Larry and he said the service went well but he forgot to turn on the recorder to tape his message.  I am sorry I missed out on hearing what God had given him.

This week Joel and Dana and his group will be back with us.  I can’t wait to see what God has for us through his messengers.  I hope you will invite someone to come with you on Sunday and we can share what Christ has for us.  Part of being a good disciple is answering the call when we are called.  It is so much easier for me to hear God and feel him when I know I am right where I am suppose to be.  My place Sunday will be at 6929 Day street in the house that God built and sustained for over 53 years.  God has a word for me and I am excited about receiving it.  He has a message for you as well so do not let ANYTHING stop you from being at BBT on Sunday.

I heard from La Trish last week and I was hoping she would get to be in church last week but I could not get back with her.  She is doing well and has moved closer to the church so I hope she will be in church this Sunday.  If she is there please tell her how much we have missed her and how glad we are to see her again, everyone needs to know they have been missed.  I will see you on Sunday, Lord willing, so you plan on being there too.  Keep doing good things in God’s name and remember we love you.  See you in CHURCH!!!

Pastor David & Pris

 

Message for February 18 – What Must I Do?

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
Hello church family and friends.  I hope you have had a good week, growing closer to the Lord and learning how to live as He has called us to live.  Life has its challenges for all of us, but we know Him who overcomes.

This week I have the privilege of speaking to you about the story of the “rich young ruler.”  This man’s encounter with Jesus is the foundation for our Sunday School lesson, and there are some other interesting things about this story that I would like to explore with you.  It is found in Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31, and Luke 18:18-30.  Each account reveals something new, so though we won’t have time to read them all in whole tomorrow, I suggest you do so in your private study time.

We’ve all been taught that we receive eternal life by making Jesus lord of our lives, or at least that’s what we should have been taught.  We have a nice little formula and prayer to get started, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  We learned one way to share it with others this summer and I hope everyone has been able to put it into practice.

If that’s the way to eternal life, why didn’t Jesus give that answer here?  If we’re all equal in His sight, why did He make a point of saying how hard it is for a rich man to enter his kingdom?  Even his disciples were amazed that he would say that.  If we study this story a little more closely, what else might we learn?  Come and see!

 

Sunday February 12, 2012 ” Following our questions”

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by
It was really good to be in the house of the Lord on Sunday.  It was a welcome change from a hectic week.  It was nice to be around people who love and care about one another.  We began our class on Discipleship and we were able to watch a very moving video on our NEW projector and screen.  Linda has ordered the workbooks for the class and hopes to have them in this week.  We will be learning about discipleship over the next few weeks

This week I am going preach on some of the questions that were raised in being a disciple. The scripture verses this week are in the Gospel of John the 20Th chapter starting in verse 24 through 31.  This is the story of Thomas, a disciple, making statements and asking questions that we need to look at.  Can we question God?  Why do things happen like they do?  Is there a reason for the problems and suffering we are going through?  I hope you will be in Church this week as we follow our questions and see where they lead us.

Please remember to pray for those mentioned in the prayer request last week.  You can find them listed in the “Prayer room” on our web site.  All of us are going to need the prayers of our brothers and sisters in Christ at one time or another.  Aren’t you glad to know that when you need prayer there is a group of people who are lifting you up in prayer and care enough about you that they will be for you in your time of need.  The reason we come together in church on Sunday is to charge our battery and lift our spirits.  You cannot get this jolt of inspiration if you just go to church to due your duty to God.  You have to want to be there and receive God’s word and be ready to share yourself with your neighbor.  Please join us on Sunday and lets keep doing good things in Jesus name.  We love you and can’t wait to see you Sunday!!

Pastor David& Pris

 

Sunday February 5, 2012 “The adventures of discipleship ” Part 2

Bartimaeus Baptist Temple Posted on by

Greeting to all BBT followers.  It was a traumatic weekend for our family last weekend.  We received a call our youngest daughter was being rushed to the hospital as she had taken several sleeping pills.  This was not something we ever dreamed of.  How did this happen?  What did we do wrong? What made Kim feel like she would be better off dead?  These were all questions I asked as I rushed to Medical City.  My wife was in Tyler taking care of her Mom and Dad when she got the news so she had a two-hour drive to ask these same questions.  The truth is we never realized Kim was as depressed as she was.  I think God she is now O.K. and hopes to be back home on Thursday.  It showed me no one is immune to tragedy and just when you think things in your life are coming together, Satan raises his ugly head to destroy you and your love ones.  Thank God our God is greater than anything Satan can do.  Thinks so much for all your prayers on Sunday and through this week.  I will never forget how this group of believers came together to pray for my little girl.  You are so precious to my family.

The sermon this week is the same sermon I intended to do last week.  The scripture is in gospel of Mark 1: 14-20.  It is entitled “the adventure of discipleship.”  Linda is going to begin her lessons on discipleship this week and I believe we need to understand how important it is for us as Christians to know how to be a good disciple.

Thanks again for all you did for our family this week and continue to lift Kim up in your prayers because she will be in counseling over the next few months so she can learn to feel better about herself.  Cindy has been sick over the last week and she is close to developing pneumonia.  She needs our prayers.  Continue to pray for Chuck and Sarah and please pray for the early church.  We have overcome some hurt feelings and I hope we will develop the love and respect for one another.  We will see you on Sunday and keep being a good disciple by doing good things in God’s name.

Pastor David & Pris