Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me

Pro 30:8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Pro 30:9 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
Good morning friends and teens. Well we have gotten off to a great start in our Wednesday night series (the Book of Revelation). The Pastor has started in Chapter 1 and we will be walking through until the end. How exciting considering the message he brought was only the beginning, afterwards while fellow shipping a young boy came forward and wanted to "talk with the preacher". Well in case you may not have heard church, or teens little Jojo got Saved! Glory to God when a young boy has it all figured out that he is a sinner in need of a Savior, and that he had enough sense to come forward and make it right. In this morning reading of Proverbs I came across the above two verses that I usually come across during my daily reading, but for some reason I guess the Lord just impressed upon me to share them with you. What an exact picture of today's people in this country, we are a covetous, ungrateful nation at what the Lord has blessed us with always chasing after more wealth and gain. Because of our unrighteousness we have become full of our own conceit and therefore have left the Lord in many areas. If you look at other people, they have become poor and destitute because of their lack of love for the Lord, and have turned to thievery and unrighteous gain because of their slothfulness all in which keep them from a personal relationship with the Lord God. Teens let your lives emulate the second verse, learn to be content with what you have and the position that you may be in life, don't seek after riches and unrighteous gain. I know its not easy to look at others and see what they may be running around with (new clothes, cool video games, ipods, cell phones) think about this though..what have they forsaken in order to get those things, or how do they treat their parents and God after always receiving those things? What have their parents forsaken in order to deliver these things into their hands? What about a relationship at home because the parents are always working to satisfy worldly desire rather than need. What about a relationship with God, where when in fellow ship with Him all your needs are met? Friends little is much when God is in it, don't be fooled by this worlds promotion of things. Remember that the Lord said "Mat 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: Mat 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: Mat 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Teens where is your heart today, and what treasure are you chasing after? What price are you willing to pay to get what you are seeking, for there is always a price. Is it treasure that in the end, when the Lord has required your life that He will reward you, and your riches will be gold, silver and precious stone or will it burn up in the fire and be nothing as wood hay and stubble? Another possibility is that you may have your heart so set on the things of this world that you never call upon the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin, and never accept Him as your personal Savior. I remember growing up that I had a very good friend, a best friend and his hearts desire was on a Nissan 300Z, well he got one from his parents, and six months later while on the way to my house on Christmas Eve he ended up wrecking and dying, the car was mangled, and so was his families lives! The saddest part was; he was the son of a preacher, and he never shared with me the gospel, so my thought is to this day, was he saved? His life revolved around getting things and going fast, what a testimony... Teens there is more to life than material gain, my prayer for you today is that you would look at what, or who you are living for and decide to make a change for the Glory of God! I love ya'll and am praying for you.

He that rebuketh a man

Pro 28:23 He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue.

Good morning friends, and teenagers if you happen to have started reading this. Well this week in Sunday School we almost completed Philippians Chapter 1 with a few different thoughts to go on. We see from Chapter 1 that it showed Christ as the purpose of life, and that Paul had a single focused mind in preaching the gospel no matter the circumstance. We also learned of how Paul was able to be a steadfast testimony even while in bonds in the prison with the elite Roman soldiers guarding him. We've had the opportunity to learn this past week of the following:

1. Paul's Chains
2. Paul's Critics
3. Paul's Crises

All this can be found in verses 13-26, where we will close out chapter 1 with verses 27-30 this Sunday. Teenagers if you will be reading the last few verses in Chapter 1 and prepared to discuss them it would be an encouragement not only to me, but the others around you. Now when I was reading my daily Proverb, it struck me to write on the above verse for this morning. We see in America today that there is enough flattery going on, and no correction in peoples lives. This doesn't give you however a license to run around and destroy people with the tongue. When you are talking in everyday conversation and somebody says something that is not correct according to the Word of God, then it would be wiser to correct that person in love, rather than agree with them, or to build them up in their own conceit. A lot of times this is done at the schoolhouse to gain acceptance, or at the work place to gain support for that new promotion. According to the Word of God however it is better to correct that person up front then let that person be rebuked later by somebody else and made a fool. The person that you are rebuking will probably take it pretty harsh up front, however if they are a Christian, they will see why you said what you said after much prayer and then come and thank you for it. In today's society of "peace and harmony" it is very rare to find a person that rebukes out of love, even in a lot of peoples rebuking nowadays it is to prove that they are better, smarter, quicker than somebody else. Don't let this be your intention Christian, instead let your words be seasoned with grace, for the encouragement of others to turn from ignorance and idleness, and glorify God through your actions. The challenge today then is to not flatter, but to lovingly be a leader according to the Word of God, by rebuking with gentleness for the purpose of instruction and guidance, rather than a haughty spirit of you know more than them just to prove a point.

Have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;

Php 1:12 But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;

Good afternoon again readers, what a wonderful time we are having at Calvary Baptist Church during our Discoveries of Destiny Bible Conference. God has blessed us with a tremendous turnout, and the information that is given during the preaching hour is fascinating. I would highly recommend Bro. J.D. Grush to come and preach if you are seeking to learn more about Antiquities, Archeology, and Prophecy. Not only had the preaching been good but the fellowship with the saints has been great, there have been many visitors and we thank our Lord for sending them our way, our prayer is that their hearts may be stirred for Him, to learn more, and worship Him in Spirit and Truth according to the Word of God! I have been so overjoyed at the teens that have made it a point to be in their places to hear and learn, I know that as Paul said while he was in chains that it fell out rather to the furtherance of the Gospel, that what these teens are able to see, hear and learn from this conference will definitely fall out to the furtherance of the Gospel. Friends let me encourage you to read your Bible's more closely, and pay attention to what is happening in the world, if you haven't noticed already we are one more day closer to the glorious return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The question is are you ready, are you doing all you can, or should be for Him that upon His return the Lord would find you working in His vineyard? I am looking forward to this Sunday as we are finishing Chapter 1 of Philippians with the teens, won't you follow along with us as we see Chapter 1 applied as "Having the Mind of Christ throughout the Gospel" We see that no matter what circumstance Paul was in, he was going to preach. We also see that Christ preached the message of the Savior and Salvation. So no matter where you are, or what your going through will you allow your testimony to show the mind of Christ and allow the furtherance of the gospel to be accomplished in your life?

That ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;

Php 1:10 That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;
Good afternoon fellow readers, what an awesome start to our Bible conference yesterday as we hosted Brother J.D. Grush presenting the "Discoveries of Destiny". I will try and have these posted on our web page within the next day, you can go to www.cbclawrenceburg.org and then go to sermon page to hear what was presented. All of our teens had a good time last night as we had our first "afterglow". We met after the services and played games and had pizza what a good time of fellowship. During this time I had encouraged them to look and see who is missing from the group, after they named a few names I gave them this suggestion...when they are out and about tell them how much we missed them, and what they missed out on when they see these folks. Friends this is the duty of every Christian, not just the Pastor and staff. If you noticed a church family member out, why don't you give them a call, be concerned, not nosey. As the above verse states "that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;" Tell them what they missed and that you missed them, you don't know how much of a difference that may make in their lives. Friends it is a shame when we call on folks to be nosey and busybodies, instead let us be encouraging and sincere in our desires to see folks come and worship God. On another note, I was able to get the teen room cleaned out and ready to get the floor painted so we can finally move in this weekend. What a blessing that will be so that we can expand our ministries at the church. I thank God for every need that has been supplied during this process and we are excited that we will have more room for the teaching and preaching of God's Word! Well we look forward to Gods blessings again this evening as we head into our third message of the series "The Exodus Enigma" for our Bible conference. Please be praying for the services and also for decisions that are being made! I hope and pray you all have a wonderful day!

Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all

Php 1:7 Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.

Good morning again dear friends, what a wonderful night our church had last night on our church wide visitation. All of us had such wonderful visits and I can't wait to see what the Lord does in the way of blessing for our labors. Well yesterday I covered some of what we covered during Sunday School last Sunday, so today I will try to finish out what we could not get to considering you only have an 45 minutes to teach. As I said yesterday we looked at versus 1-12 of Philippians Chapter 1, so today's thought is this "let this mind be in you". Our minds are so full of things when in actuality it ought to be full of Christ. The spiritual battle that goes on in our hearts and minds can be won through Jesus Christ if we would but have the mind of Christ. Here are some devotional thoughts for you to look at and see where your mind is concerning them:

1. The fellowship of the gospel vs. 5-6
2. The confirmation of the gospel vs. 7-11
3. The furtherance of the gospel vs. 12-16

We can see because of the fellowship with one another, it confirms the message that Christ related to His disciples, Joh 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. Because of the change of man from the old to the new, the fellowship confirmed, which encouraged the saints to further the gospel message. May God bless and you find your place in church this Sunday. Please be praying for our Discoveries of Destiny Bible Conference starting this Sunday and going through this Wednesday.

Being confident of this very thing

Php 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Well good morning my dearly beloved readers and friends. I have been quite busy and also praying on which direction to take this blog. Now that I have a Teen Sunday School class to teach I thought that I would aim this at them and give them something to read for devotionals while in-between our Sundays. This does not mean that this will be fruitless for you to look at if your not in our Sunday School class, but I hope and pray that it will encourage you the same way if you have followed along since this Blogs inception. What I will do is go over some of the material that I didn't get to cover during the Sunday School hour and also give them something to think about for the upcoming week. With this younger generation it seems that this also could prove to be an effective communication tool as I see more and more teens texting and such. Well the teen building is almost complete, we still need to under gird it, put the ceiling in, paint the floor, and plant flowers if you have been following the status of that. I would ask that you pray for us this week coming as we are excited to have Evangelist JD Grush present to us his work on "Discoveries of Destiny", a walk through the Bible from an archaeological perspective. Pray that our hearts would be stirred because of the supporting information from the Bible to what archaeologists have found in this present day and age. I would also ask for prayer for the teen group since we have many upcoming events! Just to bring all you readers up to speed we have been in the book of Philippians and have started @ Chapter 1:1-12. We are looking at chapter 1 as the purpose of life, that is Christ. Our Key verse is 1:21 in which Paul gives plenty of supporting information on why it is that way for him since we find him in prison, ready to go before the Roman emperor. We have seen in vv 1-12 the following bits of information, Paul had the saints at Philippi:

1. In his mind- all the things that he remembered were excellent thoughts
2. In his heart- he longed for them, and wanted them to continue on
3. In his prayers- that their love would abound, that they would approve excellent things, and that they would be sincere until the day of Christ

I like the verse that the Lord has had me thinking about because of the power behind that verse, it's three fold in nature as we can see through:

• the work God does for us--that is salvation, remember it is by faith through grace, we cannot earn it, pay for it, or work for it. God did the work accept that finished work on the cross by Jesus Christ and His shed blood for the remission of our sins
• the work God does in us- that is sanctification, daily coming before the throne of grace and receiving cleansing from our sinful ways. Cleansing our hands and our hearts as the Bible states. Be careful of what you are doing, and what your are desiring.
• the work God does through us- that is service, God has at a minimum in every Christians life given us the work of the great commission to fulfill, and as Paul states in Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Psa 84:10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness

Well good evening to you faithful readers and friends! I have been busy as of late trying to get the teen building finished out. We have started to hang the siding and our own local church sent missionary Bro Norris Ward lent a hand today by taking the lead to get all the trim and siding started! Thank God for men who are willing to work even after they have traveled and preached. Well tomorrow we will be painting the inside of the building and the teens are getting excited, they are talking how they can raise some funds for some decorations and plants. I know that this encourages me because it shows that some still have a heartbeat for God and are willing to be around Gods house, hearing Gods messages and willing to do Gods work by making the house of God look good with what they have been given. Please pray for me as I try to lead them the way that the Lord would have me, and that we would get much accomplished tomorrow. As the above verse states David was just excited to greet somebody as he was to be the King of Israel. I want the teens of our church to understand that there is always somewhere to serve God, whether that be with a smiling face greeting new visitors, or leading a devotion for other teenagers. We all learn a lesson from David if our hearts were right and say thank you Lord, even if we don't have ministry that looks like it is big, we can still find joy in doing the simplest of things that makes your church warm and welcome, even if it is just standing by the door and being a doorkeeper in the house of God! What a privilege it is to serve the Lord no matter what capacity it may be in. I also thank God that there are those that are willing to be faithful to the house of God, and not running around in their old haunts. It is better to be found in fellowship with the saints rather then in sin with the sinners! Friends I look forward to tomorrow and this upcoming Sunday for Mothers Day. May your weekend be safe and have a blessed Mothers day.

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Well good afternoon readers and dear friends. As you may have noticed a lot of my posts have swapped from the morning to afternoon that way I can accommodate the tasks that I have now on my radar. Well we just finished with looking at the training of the Christian soldier, I am praying as to what the Lord would have me to look at next. I sincerely hope and pray the all the posts on the Christian Soldier was an encouragement, not only an encouragement but a challenge to arm up and go forth in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ proclaiming the Gospel message wherever it is that God has you. In the mean time would you be praying with me about a few things going on at Calvary Baptist Church in Lawrenceburg, TN. There are a lot of needs and I know that our God can meet every need that is mentioned. The First need is what is on my heart the most at the moment is our planned missions trip to Mexico. There are a group of us that have a burden to go to Veracruz, Mexico and preach the gospel. This door of opportunity arose because one of our members is from that town and four years ago he was saved! He has lived in this country now for fifteen years and hasn't been home since, but there is a great burden to have the gospel preached there since there are no good Bible believing folks there. We have contacted a full time missionary in that country who is going to help us when we get there. Here are our current needs for this trip:

1. Passports
2. Financial Help
3. Open hearts in that country
4. Open hearts here that would help us get there

The second need for that I would like you to pray about is our ministries. Gos has blessed us with a great responsibility through these ministries and I am praying that we would not get weary in well doing and that each member would pray for more souls. The third need is a van for our Bus ministry, we sold our older van in hopes of getting a new one, we had one picked out and talked to the folks at the car lot, unfortunately when we finally raised the money for the one we were interested in they had already sold it. Please pray that God would give us the van that we need to fulfill this hole. The fourth thing is for our Bible conference that is coming up in here May 18th thru the 21st, please pray that this will open eyes and hearts and that God would bless and give the increase. I thank you all for praying and look forward to tomorrow and what God may have for us!

Training of the Christian Soldier--Equipping the Soldier II

Hello and good afternoon dear friends! What a lovely past couple of days it has been weather wise here in Tennessee. Well we have made headway on the Teen building at Calvary Baptist Church and this weekend the teens are scheduled to paint it, please pray for me! Well yesterday we left off with the sandals of the gospel, which are rooted and grounded and prepared to go if need be wherever God may lead. Today we are going to look at a couple of pieces of defensive armor and the first piece of offensive weaponry. The last piece of bodily armor is the Helmet of Salvation, this piece was important for without protecting the head all the other pieces were in vain. You see if you couldn't hear the preaching then you wouldn't know what Jesus Christ did and why He did it. It also protects you from hearing stuff that you ought not to hear of you are wearing it properly. The helmet also protected the eyes, for without shielding them with the Word of God, then you would be blinded and useless. Lastly it protects the brain, or better yet your mind so you are not confused by false doctrines and wayward teachers. Friends the Bible exhorts us to "touch not, taste not, handle not" so we see that we are to be armored with all of the aforementioned bodily armor so that we may fulfill this command. The last piece of armor to be mentioned looks huge and intimidating, but without it the body would be blasted by attack after attack and would eventually fall apart. With this last piece of armor though it is a real help in the beginning of the battle and if all the other armor starts to fail, then you can always run to this piece and pick it up and let it surround you. The Shield of Faith is the last piece of armor, yet it is the biggest part of the soldier to carry into battle. We could say what the Bible says, "without faith it is impossible to please God" or better yet "the just shall live by faith"! Friends the shield of Faith is the first piece of armor that the enemy sees, and like the shield that the Roman soldiers carried. our faith ought to be as big. The shield that those Roman soldiers carried was almost five feet tall, enough to conceal a man behind it, strong enough to plow through the battle. Roman foot soldiers who were strong carried this shield because they trusted that with it, it would bring them to the point that they could get into the hand to hand combat without being scratched. Faith is trusting God when all else is brought to nought. When we are at the ends of our ropes and we think that we have it all figured out, it is faith that brings us to that closer relationship with our Heavenly Father. The Lord Jesus said if we had faith as a mustard seed, think about that, and do a study on the mustard seed, our Pastor brought us through one a while back and it was eye opening! If our faith was large enough or Strong enough we could figuratively move mountains! Friends our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the anchor for our soul, and the defense to plow through life's obstacles because we are trusting God to provide for us in every aspect of our lives! It is faith that makes long nights short, and it is faith that shines through the darkest of tunnels. Remember the Bible says that the good work which God started, He will finish! Trust God my friends, and put your faith in Jesus Christ that He has the answers for all of life's needs! Now with faith comes the working or trying of our faith, and we are given some offensive weapons in which we can faithfully go to battle. The first listed is the Sword of the Spirit, and friends let me tell you to wield it you MUST train with it. The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, and with it if you are not careful you can cut deeper than any physical two-edged sword that man can possibly furnish. When you have armored up and taken the shield of faith and plowed through and the battle gets to be close and personal then wield your sword and defeat the Devil by using exactly what Christ used to defeat him, the Word of God! Friends I hope today was another encouraging devotion to spur you into action to get into the battle and have faith that God has provided for the Christian Soldier all that he needs to accomplish the task.

Training of the Chrsitian Soldier- Equipping the Soldier

1Pe 2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

No man goes to battle without first counting the cost, and no man goes into battle without the proper equipment! What a joy it is to know that our Lord and Savior has given to us the proper equipment to go into the fray. Like every good soldier knows not only having the proper equipment is important, but maintaining that equipment is equally important. When I was in the military everything from my rucksack to my weapon was meticulously looked after, why, because it could very well save my physical life. In the spiritual realm you can tell the disciplined soldier from the undisciplined by how well he maintains his equipment and puts it to use. Lets look at a few pieces of defensive equipment first today. (Ephesians 6:11, 13-17)

1. The girdle of Truth- No soldier in the old Roman army would be caught without one, it tied all his armor in together, also allowing him mobility of movement to do battle, in later years the sword was attached to the belt. As we can see the belt kept everything in place otherwise it the armor would fall all over the place, just so in our lives also, the Truth will make you free, free to move about without retribution or worry. Truth through the Word of God, and Jesus Christ allows you to keep your life together so that you can do battle. How well have you put the Truth of Gods Word to use in your life?
2. The breastplate of righteousness- Righteous living affects the heart, and just as the breastplate in the soldiers armor was designed to protect the heart, we need to ensure that we are living Biblical separated lives so that the devil cannot get to our hearts, this is accomplished by staying in the Word and heeded to Gods will. The Word of God says be ye Holy for I am Holy, are we trying to live Holy separated lives according to His word?
3. The Sandals of the Gospel- Roman soldier wore sandals that had nails in them for footing so when they were battling they had a firm foothold and couldn't be pushed backwards. We always need to have the gospel with us and prepared to take it anywhere, we should understand the gospel message, that is Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died a vicarious death by the shedding of His blood on the cross, was raised in victory sitting at the right hand of God, waiting for the trump to sound that He may return in power and glory to redeem all of those that have called upon His name for the remission of sins! This should be our firm footing and we should not be pushed away with the tainting of this worlds wisdom after mans own religious thoughts. How well do you know the gospel, and if you know it are you prepared to take it to the uttermost, wherever God may lead you to share it?

Friends we will continue tomorrow on the thoughts of the defensive equipment of the Christian soldier so that you have time to go back and study these out for yourself today. I hope and pray this will have been an encouragement to pull out some of this equipment and dust it off to put it to use! Until tomorrow may God bless.

Training of the Christain Soldier Part 3

Eph 6:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Good morning friends and readers, last night was such a blessing at Calvary Baptist as the Spirit was really moving. There was much liberty for the preacher to preach what the Lord placed on his heart and what a great message it was. Well today I would like to finish out point #3 of our Training of a Soldier Part I. To recap from previous posts we looked at:
· Core Values- God First, Service Before Self, and Excellence In All We Do To The Glory of God!
· Core Beliefs- The Verbal Inspiration of the Scriptures, The Virgin Birth, The Vicarious Death, The Victorious Resurrection, and The Visible Return of Christ

We will look at our Core Mission for today, this is the why of the training cycle. In it we see that the sub points lead to the main reason for all Christians to get in the fray. Here is a simple breakdown of what to look at in the Core Mission.
· Our exhortation
· Our equipping
· Our evangelizing

Our exhortation is these three things to make us successful. First we are exhorted to stand. Standing in the line of fire is not an easy thing to do, when bullets start flying most people want to run. A good soldier will just plant his feet and prepare for the onslaught, he doesn’t want to give up any ground, he is fighting to protect something that is very dear to him. Friends, when the devil throws those fiery darts at you just stand, plant your feet and resist him ( Jas 4:7; Eph 6:11, 13-14) for the God of Heaven says that you are able through Christ to do so. We are not to be on the offensive looking to run over the devil at every chance we get, or go charging the gates of hell with a squirt gun, instead we are exhorted to stand (1Pet 5:8-9). When persecution starts just stand, and pray for those that are ignorant of what you know, and who you are through our Lord Jesus Christ. When temptation tries to take you then know that God has made a way of escape (1 Cor 10:13). Second we are exhorted to pray. When the going gets tough the tough go to praying (Jude 1:20). In many ways we can overcome the devil and this world by the simple act of taking it to the Lord in prayer (Mat 5:44). When I was in the military one of the most effective things to winning the war was communication, and our communication with the Lord is very important, He needs to hear from us in order for Him to help us. Our lifeline when we are about to get defeated is with the Lord, then the reserves can be sent in, or another soldier can pick up the slack and help out a brother in need, all this comes though by prayer and supplication (Mat 6:4). Thirdly we are to be watching. If we are ever vigilant then it would be hard for the enemy to get a foothold, or and advantage of us. What a shame it is when we are to be watching and praying that we are found to be goofing off or have our eyes on things that are of no eternal value. The Lord took three of His disciples into the garden to watch and pray, instead they became secure in their place and fell fast asleep, this ultimately led to them being taken advantage of during the trial of Christ. If they had obeyed and watched, they would have seen the perfect example of what we are to do when the battle gets fiery hot, that is pray like you’ve never prayed before. Our Lord prayed so hard that the Bible says it was as if He were sweating blood! It says this in 2Ti 4:5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. We are exhorted to watch thou in all things, inside the home, outside the home, in the church, out of the church all this so we may be considered a good servant and an excellent soldier. In closing today I hope that I have encouraged you to stand, pray and watch and endure hardness as a good soldier for the honor and glory of Christ. Tomorrow we will begin to look at our equipping so that we are able to accomplish these things.