Sunday November 21, 2010

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Greeting followers of BBT. I hope you are doing well and you are looking forward to the holidays ahead.  We have so much to look forward to over the next few weeks.  I hope you were able to be in church last week because God really moved.  Linda brought the Sunday School lesson and Larry brought the message on gratitude.  It is a message we all need to hear especially at this time of year and Linda reminded us that if we are not where we need to be in our relationship with God, then we need to get busy do his working and we will find a new attitude in our lives.  Chuck and Sarah were also present and we as a Church prayed for Chuck as he is dealing with 2 large tumors, one in his brain and the other in his sinus area.  We trust God in his healing promises to us and we are claiming that for Chuck right now.  He is going on Wendsday for a biopsy.  I will let you know when we hear something.

This week is our annual Thanksgiving dinner after church.  I love being able to share with one another over a great Thanksgiving dinner.  I hope you will make plans on being there this week and inviting someone to come with you. The sermon this week is coming from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 8 starting with vs 6 going through vs 18.  Moses is giving his last words to the Israelites before they go into the promise land and he reminds them from where they came.  On this Thanksgiving week I think it is important for us to do the same.  I hope you will join as as we celebrate this Thanksgiving holiday.

On Saturday, Joel and his group will be at the church to work on our stage, then on Sunday the 28Th they will be back to led us in worship and praise.  It has been a long time since they have been here and we are looking forward to sharing with them again.  On Sunday December 12Th Chuck Cagle and his group will be back to sing their Christmas carols.  I hope you will put these dates on your calender and make plans to be their every Sunday for the rest of the year.  Keep praying for our sick and keep doing GREAT things in the name of our God.  We love you all and we are looking forward to seeing you on Sunday

Pastor David and Pris

Message for November 14 – True Gratitude

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I’m sure Pastor David plans to deliver a Thanksgiving message this month, but I believe God is prompting me to do the same.  Jesus often explained the same thing using different illustrations, and I think that’s what He wants to do in our church this month.  From an early age we’re taught to say “thank you.”  What does that mean?  What is meant by thanksgiving when it appears in the Bible.  Several times over the past few months we’ve read 1 Thessalonians 5:18, which tells us to give thanks in everything because this is God’s will for us.  How do we do that?  Join me on a journey through the Bible this Sunday as we explore true gratitude.

Sunday November 7,2010

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What a blessed day I had last Sunday.  The members honored me with their appreciation and I was given a nice plaque to remember this day.  i appreciate the chance to be the pastor of this church and I am very honored to be a member of BBT.  I want to thank you again for all your nice words.  Larry presented his message to us oh how much God  loves us and I know you were inspired to think not only does God loves me he likes me as well.  What a great God we serve.

This week as I was reading in Luke I came across the story in Luke the 20Th Chapter when Jesus is talking to the Sadducee’s about Life after death. You know death is not something we talk about much and we try not to think about it as well.  Well we can ignore it all we want, but the reality is we are all going to face death and we had better, as my Mother use to say, ” be packed and ready to go.”  I don’t want this week’s message to be morbid but there are some things we need to understand, starting with, we all will face death unless Jesus comes first.  Jesus was telling the Sadducee’s some things about heaven we need to understand.  The scripture this week are Luke 20: 27-38.  Read these versus and understand that the Sadducee’s did not even believe in life after death.  See what Jesus shares with them.

I ask you to remember what we talked about last week in how we are going to start treating each other.  I can not tell you how important it is, well maybe I can, Jesus says the greatest commandment in all the world is to Love God with everthing you have then turn around and love others the same way.  He also says people will know we are his disciples because we have love one for another.  As Larry showed us last week God loves us with all the diffrent kind of loves and he expects us to do the same. I hope you will be with us on Sunday to celebrate God’s love and see what God wants to share with us.

Keep doing good things, remember to pray for those we mentioned in our prayer request and just keep trusting God.  We love you and can’t wait to see you on Sunday

Pastor David & Pris

Message for October 31 – Responding to God’s Love

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Hello to all our church family.  I hope this finds you well and engaged in the things God has called you to.  I’m encouraged by the things He is doing in our church and look forward to what comes next.  Last week’s service marked another step in the process of healing and growing together.  This week we’re going back to my favorite subject.  I didn’t know this was coming when I first considered this message, but how appropriate it is that we are taking some time to love and appreciate our pastor, who has certainly loved and given himself to the service of God and this body.

A couple of months ago, we talked about how much God loves us.  He loves us so much that Jesus gave up everything to save us.  We found out that he even likes us.  Knowing that, what should we do about it?  Is a response required?  Does it matter how we respond?  What if we do not?  If we want to return that love, how would we go about it?  Is love feeling or action?  We’ll start from 1 John 4:15-17 and take the next leg of our journey towards understanding the true meaning of love.

Sunday October 24, 2010

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Hello members of BBT.  I hope you are having a great week and I hope you have a great weekend as well. Sunday was a great day as usual and I hope you will make plans to join us this week and help me and Pris celebrate our 28Th wedding Anniversary. I am a lucky man to have such a great family and beautiful wife, as well as a great family at church. I want you to know how much you mean to me and Pris. All of you have a very special place in our hearts. You are very much part of our family.

This week I am getting away from the book of Luke and I want us to look at the the life of Peter.  I think we all have a Little bit of Peter in us and I want us to try and understand who Simon Peter was. He was by far the most outspoken of the disciples. He was a remarkable man and I want us to try and see what was it that inspired Peter.  I want us to try and understand what Jesus meant when he said what he said in Matthew 16:18.  I think we can really learn some things about how we need to live our lives as we look back at Peter’s life.  I hope you will be ” In The House” with us on Sunday and lets see what God has for us.

Please keep praying for all our members and nonmembers who are hurting right now and really need a touch from God. Let God use you to help someone in need this week and lets work together to bring the Kingdom of God down here on Earth. We love you and can’t wait to see you on Sunday. If you need something or just want to talk please call me or Pris or Pastor Larry. if we don’t answer leave a message and we will call you back. May God bless you and keep you till we see each other again.

Pastor David and Pris

Sunday October 17, 2010

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Good afternoon or evening, depending when you are reading this, to all the faithful followers of BBT.  I want to thank you so much for all your prayers.  I feel much better and anxious to get back to see what God has for me to do.  I really appreciate Larry and Linda stepping in on such short notice.  i also appreciate Pris and my son Josh and his wife Jeri for driving the bus on Sunday. I hope you were able to be part of the worship last Sunday and will be back this week!

As Larry mention last week this was a hard week for our family as we lost a close brother and good friend in Mike Accidental.  We had his service on Thursday the 7Th and the church was overflowing.  We will miss him and we will have to trust God that we can get over this lost.  I am sure everyone will agree we are better off today because we knew Mike and his family and they were part of our family.

As I was thinking about the sermon for this week I have been reading the book of Luke over the last few weeks and if you notice I have been using Luke for my sermons each week.  Why stop now, we are not through.  As I was thinking last week what to say to Mike’s family to help them in their grief it struck me that the best thing i can do for them is to give them HOPE.  I wanted them to know that they could count on God.  So this week we are going to be in Luke the 18Th Chapter starting in vs 1 through vs 8.  This is the parable of the unjust judge and the widow.  I hope you will read these versus before Sunday and I am going to show you what God has shown me in these versus and what we can count on God for.  What is it that you count on him for today?  There are many things in life that we cannot count on but there are things about God that we can rest assured that we can count on him for.  I hope you will be in Church on Sunday , if not with us , somewhere that you can hear the word of God preached and feel the Holy Spirit move in your life.

I ask that you will continue to pray for  the sick.  As you will learn Sunday, you can count on God to hear your prayers.  I also what us to be people of action. Lets not waste another day worrying about what lies ahead.  We can do good things for people in spite of our own circumstances and God will continue to bless us.  That is another thing we can count on God for.  We love all of you and we are excited to be with you again on Sunday.  May God bless you in everything you do and say.

Pastor David & Pris

Message for October 10 – Hoping For The Best

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Hello to all of our wonderful BBT family.  It’s been a tough week for our church, but I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.  When I spoke to you last Mike was still with us but we knew it wouldn’t be long.  I wanted to deliver a message of encouragement, but it seemed that the Lord wanted me to stay with the one He gave me before we learned how close he was to going Home.  Despite the heavy topic I pray that God did use it to encourage and help you.  This time I get to do something more like what I wanted to do before.

What comes to mind when you think about hope?  We tend to use the word rather lightly.  Several times even in the writing of this message I started to use it that way; more like “I wish” than in its deeper significance.  When we see hope in the Bible, it has a much greater significance than a mere wish.  In fact, the whole book is a message of hope.  So, what does it mean?  Why is it significant?  How do we find it?  Let’s start in Romans 5:1-6 and see where it leads.

Sunday October 3, 2010

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Good afternoon and welcome to the pastor Study at BBT. We had a great Sunday last week as Linda brought the Sunday School Lesson and Associate pastor Larry brought the message showing us who we are and that we as Christians are not naturally sinners.  We are free from sin and can rise above allowing sin to rule our life.  It was a message well received and needed.  Larry & Linda are certainly a vital part of this ministry.

I are writing this on Thursday a day after we went to the State Fair.  We had a great time with great weather.  We had a good group in attendance and I think everyone had a great time.  A big thanks to Dr Chad Blackwell who sponsors us every year.  We could not afford to make this trip every year without his support.

This week I am going to be preaching from Luke the 17Th chapter vs 1-10.  We are going to look at 3 steps in our journey of faith.  I think it is very important that we understand what it means to have faith and how just a little faith can go a very long way.  I hope you will be with us on Sunday to experience what God has for us.

It was really nice to see Mike and Cindy and Linny in Church last week.  As of Thursday morning Mike is holding on and several of his family have traveled into town to see Mike.  We are praying for a miracle for Mike and we believe our God can heal and deliver Mike back to health.  We pray for the entire family and we place Mike in God’s capable hands.  Keep praying and thinking good things for all our members and remember to keep doing good for others as God has a blessing waiting for you.  God bless you we love you and will see you on Sunday.

Pastor David & Pris

Message for September 26 – Something Sinful

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I’ll bet that even if you usually don’t read these, you opened up this one.  I would have.  That word “sinful” catches our eyes and we’re intrigued, even if we don’t know what we’re in for.  Since it’s coming from a church forum you would have reason to believe that you’re not really going to see something sinful, but if you’re like most of us your first response was not aversion, but curiosity.

Why is that?  What draws us to things we would do better to avoid?  Is it the devil?  Is it a “sinful nature?”  Sin is one of those Christianese words, but one the world is quite familiar with.  However, I think even most Christians don’t really understand what it is.  How many commercials have we seen where something is portrayed as so good it must be sinful.  Herein lies one of Satan’s tricks.  By getting us to equate all pleasurable experience with sin, he hides its true nature and sucks all the joy from our lives in the bargain.  So, we’re going to talk about sin in church.  I hope you’ll leave with a better understanding of what it is, why you want to avoid it, how to avoid it and the only Reason why you can.

Sunday September 19,2010

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What a great time we had last week. We celebrated our homecoming and  52 years of this blessed ministry. There was a lot of old friends and new faces. Pris moved us with her Sunday School lesson and Jay Gibson inspired us with his message. Jay has been with us on many of our homecoming celebrations and it is always a honor to have him come and share with us what God has laid on his heart. OH yea, there was a terrific meal afterwards as well.  I hope this will be a building block to bigger and better things at Bartimaeus. If you were not there you can hear the Sunday School lesson and the message on our website and I am sure there will be some Photos in the gallery very soon.

This week I am going to be preaching from Luke 16: 1-13. This is the parable of the unjust stewart. IT can be very confussing when you read this because it seems to show that Jesus was condoning what the unjust steward was doing. We need to talk about that. Read the scripture several times and see what God gives you on this.  I have some ideas but maybe God will show you something as well. We will be back to our normal start time again this week of 2:30.

Remember to keep praying for those who need our help. Say a special prayer for Sandra Hart this week as she is having surgery. Remember Mike as he continues to go through Chemotherapy. We are looking forward to seeing you on Sunday and invite someone to come with you. Keeping doing the good things that separate us from everyone else, and expect to receive a blessing this week. God bless you and keep you and we will see you Sunday!

Pastor David & Pris