Sunday December 14th 2008

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Hello Members of BBT.  I really enjoyed the service last week and I appreciate Linda filing in so quickly on the Sunday School lesson.  I am so appreciative for all the help each and every one of you provide for me in leading this flock.

This Sunday will be our Christmas Party and Heights Baptist Church will be providing the gifts and the food for this celebration.  You do not need to bring anything but your appreciation.

There will be no Sunday School this week as we will be having the fellowship right after the service.  This weeks sermon is the message of Christmas.  Christmas is the time of year that we really seem to put into practice the principles Jesus lived and died for.  That principle is LOVE.  We are going to look at what he means for us to do this season and how Important his birth is to us.  I know how much we love each other but do we realize how much Christ Love’s us.  I want us all to feel  how special we are in the sight of God.  Continue to do your positive confessions and keep looking for answers to your problems through prayer and scripture reading.  Scripture verse for this week is John 1: 10-12 “He was in the world , and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  He came to His own and His own did not receive Him.  but as many as received Him to them He gave the right to become Children of God, to those who believe in His name

I hope that describes all of us.  I hope we can all say I have received Christ and now I am a child of God.  Do good things this week, Love people who you come in contact with and pray for those that need our help.  I will see you on Sunday!

Love You

Pastor David

Sunday December 7th

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Greeting all you faithful members of BBT.  I hope you are having a great week and I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.  The older I get the more I learn to appreciate the time I have with family and friends.  If I could pass any wisdom on to all our young people it would be to enjoy every minuet of every day and make the most out of the time you have with your family.  Priscilla is in Tyler as her Dad is in the Hospital.  She hopes to come back on Wednesday or Thursday depending on how well he does.  Please add him to your prayer list.

This week the scripture is in Mark 1: 1-8.  We are going talk about one of the greatest men of the Bible John The Baptist.  What a close relationship he and Jesus had together from growing up together to when there ministries came together at the baptism of Jesus.

As you read these versus try to picture how John would be accepted today or would he be looked at like some kind of fanatic.  The answer is he would be looked at today the same way he was looked at back then as a religious fanatic that was so eccentric he had to seen to be believed.  But he was God’s man to carry out the job of “making the way of the Lord”.  Guess what that is our calling also.  Maybe we need to get a little more eccentric ourselves.

We have a lot of things going on this month but there is nothing more important then to remember what we are celebrating.  I hope we all realize what a gift we have been given in the birth of Christ Jesus.  We are the only religion that worships a God that came to earth as a baby and suffered all the things we suffer and died a horrible death only to rise again.  We are truly blessed and we should be the most grateful people in the world.  Why aren’t We?

I hope you are using the gifts God gave you this week.  Because what you don’t use does not benefit you.  I hope to see you on Sunday and always remember to do something good for somebody ever chance you get.

Love you

Pastor David

Sunday November 30th

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We had quite a few out last week and I want you to know I missed you.  I hope you are all feeling better especially with Thanksgiving coming up, you don’t want to miss out on that Turkey!

I hope you all have a terrific Holiday and I want you to remember to count your blessing over this Holiday season.

This week’s sermon is going to be in 1st Corinthians 4: 1-7.  I was going to talk about the ten lepers who were healed and only 1 came back to thank Christ but i think God wants us to see what Paul is writing to the church at Corinth.  These versus can be very confusing and I hope to be able to help us see what Paul was trying to get across.  The Phrase I want you to ask yourself between now and Sunday is this ” WHAT DO YOU HAVE THAT YOU DID NOT RECEIVE” ?  I want you to think about this week.

I hope to see you this week in church as we don’t want to miss a singel opportunity to be there.  Do something for yourself this week by doing something for someone else.

Love You,

Pastor David

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23RD

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I hope you enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner as much as I did Sunday.  You all did a great job bringing food and helping out. I think we should do this more often  don’t you?

Keep Ruth in your Prayers this week as she is leaving to go out of town for the Holidays and she and Cathy are still struggling with their loss.

This week Summitt Church will be back and Joel and Dana as brand new parents.  I have not heard what his message will be this week but I know he is going to continue his messages on Gods Grace and Favor.  Let me remind you to bring your Bible along with pencil and paper to take notes, and come with the attitude of praising God and worshiping him through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I am looking for someone to share their testimony like Linda did a couple of weeks ago.  If you would like to share your story with us call me and let me know and I will set it up.  Have a great week. I look forward to seeing you on Sunday and do something good for somebody this week!

Love You

Pastor David

MESSAGE FOR 11-16-08

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The church was filled and overflowing for the funeral service for “Little David”, or should I say ” Young David”, Kilgore on Tuesday.  There was family and friends that were their to support the family and pay their last respects to a young man that was tragically taken away from us.  It is hard to understand why things like this happen and it is hard to try and carry on, but things do go on.  Our prayers are with Cathey and Ruth as they try to make it through this very tough time as I know they are still grieving.  That is because they loved David so much.  It is when we love a lot we hurt a lot when tragedy comes but that is the way it is suppose to be.  We cant be afraid to Love because we don’t want to get hurt.  We cheat ourselves out of the relationships that make life bearable.  Our prayers are with this family as we too love them very much.

This week sermon is found in the Matt 25:14-30.  We are going to see what God expects us to do with what he has given us and we have been given plenty.  I hope we will appreciate one another at this time of the year because we all need each other.  We need each other ‘s talents each others support and we especially need each others love.  I hope you will be able to be at church on Sunday and share with us what you have received, and share with us a great Thanksgiving dinner.  Continue to talk to people about our church, invite them to come and continue to make good choices in your life.  Start by doing something good for somebody this week, maybe somebody who would never expect you to do it.  See you on Sunday!!!

Love you

Pastor David

message for 11-9-08

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I am sorry I am getting this posted so late this week but it has been a hectic week.  The next 2 months are going to be full of exciting things so be sure and check out the information center for a list of upcoming events.

On Monday of this week Joel and Dana had a new Little baby girl.  Both mom and baby are doing good and are at home.  her name is Olivia Grace  and she weighed in at almost 7 pounds.  We cant wait to see the new addition to this family and I will put any pictures I get on this web page.

This week we are going to talk about Jesus lesson on clean hands but dirty hearts.  The scripture vs will be in Matthew 15: 10-20.  One of the things I harp on the most is having our priorities right.  This lesson is going to show you can try to do the right thing but if you go too far you can lose sight of what Jesus really wants us to understand.  It is hard sometimes to know where the line is but there is a line and we must, as Christians, see the line and see what God really is intending for us to do.

We are beginning a new outreach at the church and we need to get the word out that we are here and we have something to offer to people with disabilities and their families.  We are going to meet Saturday with a man from Veterans Disability Commission who is starting a new housing project out in Lancaster and I really believe this would be a good col labration to help us meet some new men and women with disabilities that may be looking for a new church home.  Be praying for us on Saturday as they visit the church that God will show us what we can do to help reach others with the message of Christ.

I am looking forward to seeing you on Sunday and I hope you are looking forward to it as well.  Do something good for somebody this week and remember you have found favor with God!

Love you

Pastor David

MESSAGE FOR 11-2-08

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I hope all of you enjoyed the experience on Sunday as much as I did.  I know this may be a little different then what we are used to but we need to be receptive to what ever God has for us NOW not just in the future.  God is good and his grace really does flow like a river.  This week’s sermon we are going to continue to look at grace and how we really do have favor with God whether we realize it or not.  The bible verse will be very familiar to you this week it is Matt 5: 38-48.  I hope we will be able to see because we have favor with God we need to pass that grace on to others.  It is a lesson you have been taught before but something we need to hear again.

Also this week Linda Thacker is going to share with us her testimony.  Larry and Linda both have had a terrific influence on us in just the few months they have been part of us and I am so excited to hear her story and how God has worked in her life.  I want to give others a chance to share their testimony as well as that is how we are going to be able to bring other people to the Lord by sharing what he has done for us.  I hope you will make plans to be here on Sunday because you don’t want to miss any opportunity you have to be in God’s House because we never know how many chances we will have to worship together.  As Laurie taught us don’t take things for granite because you will overlook many blessings and much joy if you don’t take time to enjoy even the little things in life.

I hope to see you on Sunday and I am looking forward to worshiping with you.  May God bless you and remember to do something good for somebody this week, it will make your week go much better.

I love you,

Pastor David

Memorial service for Laurie Genola

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This Monday afternoon a truly nice lady went home to be with the Lord.  Laurie has been a member of Bartimaeus for over 10 years and I consider her one of my best friends.  It is hard to let someone this close to you go but Laurie was “packed and ready to go.”  She had shared with me many times how she had felt like she was getting weaker and felt she had become a burden to the love of her life, her husband Sammy.  Sammy would have done anything for Laurie and I never saw two people more in love.  We can only hope that we can have as much influence on other people as Laurie had on us.

We will have a memorial service for Laurie this Sunday October 19th and we will celebrate the memory of this terrific lady.  If you have anything you would like to say you will have the chance to do that and afterwards we will have the 1st, of what I hope is many,  of the ” Laurie family dinner.”  Laurie loved it when we would have dinners at the church and I would like to propose we have a celebration every year on the week of her birthday Oct 22 that we have a “Laurie family dinner” to celebrate her life.  The church will provide chicken and all the members will bring a side dish or desert and we will remember her the way she would have wanted us to remember her as a Lady who loved to fellowship, loved to talk and read, loved to be around her friends and loved to work at being the best person she could be.  This will truly be a celebration and I hope all of you will be able to be at church on Sunday so we may honor this truly great lady.

Pastor David & family

How You’re Made – Message for Sunday, October 12, 2008

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First of all I wish to publicly thank Pastor David for giving me the opportunity to share with my new family so soon after joining the church.  I appreciate the trust that conveys, and hope it isn’t diminished by my reminding everyone that only my wife went through seminary.  I did not.  However, she did graciously provide me some of her notes to help me prepare this message.

In Genesis Chapter 1, verses 26-28 tell us that God made us in His image.  What does that mean?  Why is it important?  In what ways are we lie Him, and in what ways are we not?  Does knowing this give us insight into how we should live our lives?  I believe it does, and I want to share it with you.  We will cover a lot of scripture, so I will provide the notes if anyone is interested.

State Fair of Texas

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I hope you were able to go with us to the Fair this year.  I want to think Dr. Chad Blackwell and his wife Michelle for their generous gift that paid for us to enjoy the Fair again this year.  We had a great time and I appreciate all the hard work of Mike and Cindy, Don Potts and Ruth and Cathy.  I don’t know what I would do without all of your help.

I will be out this week with my Daughter’s wedding and my In-Laws wedding anniversary, and Larry will bring the message this week.  Please be there and support him and this Ministry.

Hope to see you next week!

Pastor David