Don’t Waste Your Life Video

Thanks to Philip Bassham for making me aware of this video.

Obama and Abortion

Accordiong to Robert George, “Barack Obama is the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States. He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress.”

Read the rest of the article.

Give A Child A Chance

A good friend of mine, Keith shumaker, has an exciting work going in Burkina Faso.  One of the projects that he has is “Give A Child a Chance” that helps children in his country get an education.  Burkina Faso has the lowest literacy rate in the world.  Here is a video about the ministry.  Email him at keith@theharvest.net, if you would like to have a part.

The Results Are Up To God

I just read this post and though it made a good point about how we need to serve God and do the best we can and then just leave the results up to God.  I don’t think we should let this be an excuse for laziness and lack of diligence, but I think that we also need to realise that things may not always turn out the way we want them to.  The important thing is that we are obedience, faithful, serve God with all of our heart, and not blame God for our laziness, lack of prayer, lack of study, or lack of soul-winning and discipleship.  Lets focus on the process and let God worry about the product whatever He chooses that that will be.

Been thinking a lot about how we pastors tend to make idols of our churches and of the results we’re supposed to achieve with them. And there’s no problem with that except that we’re not supposed to make idols of anything and I can’t find the place in the Bible where we’re promised results. (So why do we expect them?)

Recently I was reading Hebrews 11 and here’s a few thoughts I had:

Heb 11:35, “Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.”

The results of “having God” are not consistent. Sometimes you get a resurrection, sometimes you get tortured and die and have to wait for resurrection (but it will be a better one!). So, if that’s true, why do we pastors expect consistent results. If I do what this other pastor did, the same thing will happen for me that did for him. And If our church acts like that church we’ll see the same results. Or even If we do what we did before we’ll see the same impact as last time. Where does God promise consistent results?

Heb 11:36, “Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38the world was not worthy of them.”

“Having God” and serving God does not guarantee that you’ll get your best life now, if anything it means the opposite. For most, the result of serving God is suffering.

Heb 11:39, “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”

What God smiles on is not “results.” Our pastor ancestors served hard, had no results but suffering, and God commended them for their faith. If I really want God’s commendation it won’t come through achieving big results but through serving even in the face of suffering.

For some of you (and maybe even for me) this should set you free!

How to Pray for Missionaries

I read the following on John Sommer’s blog and thought it was very good.

Often we are asked how people can pray for us. I can usually give a quick list of people who need to be saved and some general things about our ministry, but I’m never quite sure how to tell people they can pray for us personally. This week I was sent a great email from a missionary’s mother. She uses the following outline to pray for her kids on the missionfield every day.

1. Pray for Character Heb 13:18-19
Lord please help the missionaries
to have a clear conscience
to be innocent when falsely accused.
to be blameless when dealing with sin in others.
to never cut corners or compromise convictions
to live an honest, noble, and honorable life.
2. Pray for clarity Col. 4:4
to make the message plain and simple.
to openly present the gospel for all to hear.
to conscientiously study the local language.
to constantly seek ways to impact the local culture.
to allow the holy spirit to do his work.
3. Pray for courage
to develop a fearless, daring heart.
to speak out even when physically or emotionally drained
to have freedom to speak out when opportunity is given.
to be culturally conscious, but always turn to the scriptures.
4. Pray for chances Col. 4:3
to seek diligently for open doors
to depend upon the Lord to open doors
to knock until doors open
to avoid forcing doors open
to realize that big doors always mean many adversaries
5. Pray for deliverance ll Thes. 3:1-2
to be shielded from malicious wickedness.
to be protected so ministry can progress.
to be careful not to shun serving in difficult places.
to be anticipating opposition to all true ministry.
to be rescued when facing all harm.

New Opportunity and New Responsibility

On this past Sunday evening, we took on a new responsibility of pastoring the Roe Valley Baptist Church in Limavady, as well as continuing in the church-planting work of Northwest Baptist Church in Derry/Londonderry. 

Missionary Ronnie Smith with Macedonia World Baptist Missions started Roe Valley Baptist Church in Limavady in 2001.  He and his family did a great job and invested tons of labour, preaching, prayer, evangelism, and discipleship into that community and the surrounding areas for the past 8 years.  We were privileged to get to work in the church for a little over a year in 2004-2005, and we had a wonderful time working with the folks there.  God has led the Smiths to leave the church, and so the church has asked us to come and fill in as the pastor there until God leads in another direction.

We will continue to work at planting Northwest Baptist Church in Derry/Londonderry, as well as work in the church in Limavady.  Our service times will be as follows:

• Sunday 10.30 AM – Service at RVBC
• Sunday 12.30 PM – Service at NWBC
• Sunday 5.00 PM – Sunday School & Bible Classes at NWBC
• Sunday 6.00 PM – Service at NWBC
• Sunday 8.00 PM – Service at RVBC
• Tuesday 7.30 PM – Service at NWBC
• Wednesday 7.30 PM – Service at RVBC

The trip to Limavady is 18 miles away from where we live and takes about 30 minutes to drive.  It is a town of about 13,000 people.  The only other Baptist church in the town is Limavady Baptist Church, which is pastored by a good man, Kenny Wilson, with whom we are friends. 

Teri and I are very excited about what the Lord is doing in the church in Derry/Londonderry, and about this new opportunity to work with a great group of people in the Limavady area who have a heart for the Lord and a heart for souls.  Please pray for these two churches that God would help them grow stronger and that He would raise up young men that we can train for the ministry.