Since I forgot to start the recorder this week and someone asked me for the verse references, I am posting the outline I was working from, which has the verses written out. It turns out that Sandra captured at least part of it on video, so maybe we will be able to share that soon. If you have any trouble with the file let me know.
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!
This week I am going to talk about “Want are you planning for in life? The scripture verse is Matthew 25:1-13. It is the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. I want us to look at this as a way for us to see what the future can hold for us. I have a different way of looking at these foolish virgins and see what is it they were guilty of? I hope you will be in church this week. I know I have been out for the past 2 weeks and it has been a LONG 2 weeks!
Keep inviting people to come and visit with us at BBT and lets bring them to church so we know they will be here. Thanks for all your prayers for my family this week and I am looking forward to seeing you on Sunday. Don’t forget to move your clock back Saturday night so you can get that extra hour of sleep but don’t be surprised when it is dark by 5pm. We love you and can’t wait to see you on Sunday.
Pastor David & Pris
This week you have decided to honor me with a pastor appreciation day. I am very appreciative of the honor to help lead this group of disciples. I think it should be the other way around and let me show you how much I appreciate you because it is you who makes this church go. I am very fortunate to have been the son of Don Whitmore and getting the chance to be part of this ministry he started along with my mother. Bartimeaus is a family business and you are all part of that family.
This week we will have a guest speaker. Her name is Shellie Lugo and she is the new director of voluntary services at Need Him. She is going to speak to us during the preaching service so you can appreciate the fact that I am not preaching this week! Just kidding, I know how excited you are each Sunday to be in church. We will not have the Sunday school time this week as we are having a dinner after the service and it is starting to get dark really earlier so we will be done by 4:30 or 5:00. Brenda Potts has agreed to make enchiladas, my favorite, and everyone else can bring what ever they want. It will be a great time of fellowship together and I am excited about our guest speaker. Let me tell you again how honored Pris and myself are by having this special day.
Keep doing the things God has for you to do. Continue to pray for one another and find things to do to show someone you love them. Keep inviting someone to come and visit BBT and let’s not keep this secret to ourselves. BBT is GREAT place to worship! We love you and can’t wait till we see you on Sunday
Pastor David & Pris
This week Joel and his group will be in church and he will bring the praise and worship on Sunday. I am always amazed at their commitment to us over the last few years and it is always one of my favorite Sundays when they are here. I hope you will be in church on Sunday.
My wife and I will be celebrating our 30-year anniversary on Saturday and we have planned to spend this weekend visiting with her parents in Tyler. We hate to miss church on Sunday but this is a great chance for us to get away for a few days and to visit her parents. I am looking forward to see them again. Keep our family in your prayers and we will be praying for you as well. If you get the chance call someone this week that maybe was not in church and tell him or her how we missed them. When I call sometimes people are saying I am calling because that is my job but when they hear from you it may mean more. Keep doing good things for people and keep being the disciple Jesus wants us to be. I will see you on the 30Th and I want to hear about what God did in church on Sunday. We love you and thank God for you every day.
Pastor David & Priss
This week Linda will bring a concluding lesson on Discipleship and my message will be on the danger of Discipleship. The scripture will be found in Luke the 14Th Chapter vs. 25-35. Read these words that Jesus spoke and see if you can answer truthfully ” are you really a disciple? ” These are tough words from a loving Savior but it is clear we need to know what we are getting in for when we choose to be a disciple of Christ. I hope you will be in Church this week and lets not, as Pam said last week, play at being in Church lets make it count!
Thanks so much for your prayers for Pris this week she is feeling much better. Thanks for Cindy writing down the pray request for us this week and thanks to Linda for getting them posted. We have many needs that need to be lifted up in prayer but we have many prayers of thanksgiving for what God has done and is about to do in this ministry as well. Keep believing and trusting in what God shows you and keep us in your prayers. Pris and myself are praying for you and thanking God every day we have this group of people in our lives. Do good things this week and we will see you on Sunday. Know you are loved!!!!
Pastor David & Pris
This Sunday I have the honor to share with you again. Linda will be talking about discipleship and I will be speaking from Proverbs 14:12, which reads, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
If the way that seems right to us leads to death, then how do we decide what is right? Is there a standard by which we can evaluate our choices? What should it be? Should it be how we feel? What about advice from people we trust? What about books or TV? Where can we turn for the wisdom that leads to life instead of death? The answer may seem obvious, yet we don’t always act like it. We say Jesus is the answer, but in our daily lives we look everywhere else. If we submitted every choice we made to God in prayer and sought wisdom from His word and His Holy Spirit, what kind of people might we be, and how might our world change? Come Sunday and explore with us the wisdom of His Word.
This week I am going to be talking about looking foolish. Many times we don’t speak out or give an opinion because we don’t want to look foolish. There is always a chance to make a mistake and look foolish. Our scripture verses for this week is 1 Corinthians 1: 18-25. This is a letter Paul is writing to the church at Corinth. He is talking about how we should behave and what is foolishness? What is it we are to get out of coming to Church? What are we suppose to put into it? I hope we can answer these questions and more by studding these scriptures.
Keep praying for those listed on our prayer requests and if you need something to be prayed over call someone in the Church and have them pray for your needs. We are all in this together and we are in a war. We need all the help we can get and even though the war is won the battles still have to be fought. Keep fighting evil and keeping looking for the good in people. If you look hard enough you will find it. Lets make it easy on others to see the good in us. We are people who are committed to do good things in Gods name. We will see you on Sunday and know this, we love you so much but God loves you even more!
Pastor David & Pris
This week we also said good by to our beloved teacher and friend Arvella. Her funeral was on Monday and it really was a celebration of her life. The music was outstanding and everyone got a chance to share how he or she felt about Arvella and how she will be missed. Larry believes we have her last Sunday school lesson on tape and he will try to get this posted on the web site. She was really an inspiration to all of us and she will be missed.
This week Joel and his group will be in Church with us and I am so looking forward to what they have for us. I hope you will plan on being in church this week and bring your praise and your petitions to the Lord.
Please keep praying for this church and for what the future holds for us because God has great things in our future. Please pray for those that are sick or discouraged right now because we want to show them the future is as bright as your faith is strong. We can count on God can he count on us. I believe he can because we want to be used by him in leading others to find him. I want to say a note of gratitude as my granddaughter Lesleigh is going to be baptized this Wednesday at Fellowship Church. We are excited about what God is going to do and the change that is going to happen in her life. We will see you on Sunday and keep doing good things for people and keep inviting someone to come to church with you on Sunday.
Pastor David & Pris
This week I am going to talk about “It isn’t fair”. The scripture for this week is Matthew 20: 1-6. We have a different concept of what is fair then God does. Luckily he is the one that matters. We are going to talk about how we need to see things through the eyes of God and I hope we will change our concept of what it means to treat a person by God’s standard. I think it is important to hold people responsible for their actions but we also need to be prepared to forgive when repentance is asked. I hope you will be in Church on Sunday and lets keep Homecoming going.
As great as Sunday was it was a very sad day on Monday as one of our members passed away. Arvella, who taught Sunday school after my mother passed away, passed away early Monday morning. She had been in St. Paul hospital when she passed. I remember the many Sunday school lessons she taught on Sunday as she sat on the front bench in the sanctuary on Sunday afternoons. I remember her singing her song “It’s nobody fault but my own”. Arvella had been going downhill over the last few months and she was looking forward to a real homecoming of her own as Jesus gently shook her shoulder and woke her up and told her now you are home for good. We will miss her but she will be waiting for us when we get to go home as well. Her funeral will be at Bartimaeus Baptist Temple on Monday the 19Th at 11:00 am.
Pray for Dee Dee and the rest of her family as they make plans to carry on without Arvella to inspire them. Please pray for those that are hurting right now and lets be a light in the darkness in all this suffering. We love you so much and we can’t wait to see you on Sunday. Our Prayer is that God will bless you and keep you and shine his countenance down on you. We will see you Sunday!
Pastor David & Pris