Sunday, April 23, 2006

Compare what is out there

My trip to Mt. Morris, Michigan was outstanding. The Bible Conference was great and the church there treated me like royalty.

We had a good number today in our services at TLBC and I continued my series of sermons on the Sermon on the Mount. The outline for my sermon on "Blessed are the Meek" is on the front page of our church website .

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One of the things that a lot of people in the network marketing industry are seeing today is how important it is to simply establish and build relationships for success. There are all kinds of social networking type of programs that are springing up everywhere. I am in several of them myself. What I like best about DirectMatches is that it PAYS! Take a look at this little demo on how it works DEMO and then got here for a free sign up Free DirectMatches Sign up.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Blessed are they that mourn...

Greetings in the precious name of our Risen Lord. Yes, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ every 1st day of the week. I continued my series of studies today on the greatest sermon ever preached, The Sermon on the Mount. We studied the 2nd beatitude today and the title of my sermon was "Blessed are the Pining." The outline is on the TLBC front page.

I got back home last night about 10:30 PM from my trip to Salinas, California for the Memorial Services for my brother Terry Killion.

http://obit.struveandlaporte.com/obit_display.cgi?id=302609&listing=Current

I'll be leaving in the morning again for my trip to Mt. Morris, Michigan to speak in the Bible Conference there at the Home Baptist Church where Elder Dan Gordon is the Pastor. Lord willing I'll return home again next Friday and back to work on the following Monday but only a short time left and I'll be saying goodbye to my secular job. Praise the Lord! It thrills my heart to think of it.

Pray for the Hunt family. Our dear friend Teri Hunt slipped quietly away to be with the Lord while sleeping the other night. Services will be held this Tuesday. Read the post on prayer posted earlier. I'm sorry I'll be out of town for Teri's memorial.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

For smart people and prayer warriors.

We had good services again today in the Lord's House http://www.thelordsbaptistchurch.com
I preached on "Blessed are the Poor". Sermon outline is on the front page of our church web site. It was good to have first time visitors Martin and Simeon in our services.

We are praying for brother Skip (diabetes) and for sister Maxine (in nursing home recovering from a fall that broke her ankle.) Also, I'll be traveling down to Salinas, California this week to attend the Memorial services for my brother, Terry Killion. He leaves a wife and two little girls. Pray for them and for travel mercies for all who will be traveling for the services there.


This is one for you smart people.....

Try to read this.

If you can.... it's interesting.

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 in 100 plepoe can.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a
wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be
in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed
it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey
lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I
awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

ONLY FORWARD IF YOU CAN READ THIS...

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Prayer

No April Fool joke this year but there are plenty of fools out there. Amen? The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.... Psalm 14.

Anyway.


I received a nice little study on prayer the other day from one of my old Bible College teachers who is now Pastor of a church in Ohio. I thought I'd post it here for your study. I'll comment in a moment.



Prayer: In What, For What, and To Whom?
By Pastor Ronnie Wolfe – March 31, 2006


"15 October 2003 The MANTRA study, run from Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, involved 750 patients. Before their operations, they were randomly split into two groups, and half were prayed for by Christians, Jews, Buddhists and Muslims. However, checks revealed they had fared no better than those not prayed for." [BBC]

Isn't this interesting? These folks at Duke University Medical Center think they know how to determine whether prayer is answered–that is just too interesting! However, they have made some very serious mistakes in their estimations.

Notice just a few quick thoughts: first, they surmise that the prayers of Christians, Jews, Buddhists and Muslims are all the same kind of prayers. This is miles from the truth of the matter. Secondly, they assume that all so-called Christians pray alike and believe the same thing about prayer. This is also very far from the real truth. Thirdly, they think that the results of prayer can be measured by scientific means, which is far removed from actual Biblical truth. Let's notice three things about prayer that come into my mind with just a cursory look at this subject.

First, prayer in what? These geniuses of spiritual knowledge seem to know so much about prayer, so let's ask them in what they pray? Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered We must ask by the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and he must help our infirmities.

Second, prayer for what? The Bible says in James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. There are so many stipulations to prayer, how can these carnal-minded professionals know anything about it? We may ask that God will do a particular thing, but those who truly pray do so with the idea that that particular thing may not be God's will. That is why we pray, "if the Lord will ..." We may pray for someone to be kept alive or to be healed of a disease, and it may not bring glory to God for that person to be healed. If that were so, then we could pray every time someone were ready to die, and that person would never die. We must consider God's purpose in our lives, especially in our prayer lives. So, how can these professionals measure the effectiveness of our prayer? They cannot! They think that if we pray that God will spare and person he the person dies that God has not answered our prayers. This is the epitome of ignorance. This must be that "science falsely so-called" that Paul tells Timothy about in 1 Timothy 6:20.

Third, prayer to whom? The Bible teaches us that we are to pray in Jesus' name: John 14:14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. No one who asks or prays in any other name than the name of Jesus can expect prayer to be answered; he has missed the mark, so this eliminates most of the people engaged in the prayers in this survey done by Duke University. You cannot pray in your own name or in the name of Buddha or Mohammad or even in the name of Jehovah God; it must be in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. He is the only mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

So, don't be alarmed by these "scientific" reports. They may be scientific according to human standards, but they are not very spiritual by God's standards, and these reports do show the world's ignorance of God's divine plan and purpose in our lives and the true faith of believers in Jesus Christ. Just keep praying, and God will keep answering in his own way. Thank God for answered prayer!

_________________________________________________

Ronnie Wolfe
http://www.firstharrison.org/

==================================================

So true brother Wolfe. We see many many answers to our prayers at TLBC. Some of them are documented on the prayer page of our church web site. Click on the TLBC link in the column on the right and go to the Prayer Request link.


One that is fresh in my memory is with sister Teri Hunt. I received a call from her Pastor a couple of weeks ago saying that she was in the hospital intensive care unit and the Doctors said there was nothing more they could do for her and only gave her a short time to live. She had cancer at an earlier age and the treatments had caused damage to her heart. Two of her heart valves were leaking.

We began to pray. We asked God to spare her if He would or give grace to her family and loved ones if He should take her home. (I actually got a sympahy card in anticipation of her death) Unsaved friends and family began to come to console the family. Well, Teri started gaining strength. The medical staff were baffeled at her improvement. Her unsaved friends were also amazed and said, "It is a miracle, KEEP PRAYING!"

Teri continued to improve but her heart was not in rythem. They tried to shock it back into rythem but it did not take. We continued to pray. (I decided a Get Well card might be more appropriate) Teri's husband Jim was at her bed side and was reading scripture to her. The passage that he was reading was Psalm 31. When he got to the last verse of the Psalm (verse 24) Teri stopped him and said, "Read that verse again."

"Be of good courage and He shall strenghten your heart all ye that hope in the Lord."

As Teri and Jim thought about that verse, the nurse came rushing in from the nurses station and said, "Something has happened! Your heart is back in rythem!" On further examination the Doctor confirmed that something had happened indeed. They decided to install a pacemaker and that went well. Teri has now been released from the hospital and when she gains a little more weight they are planning to do valve replacement surgery. To me, this is an amazing and wonderful answer to prayer. I do not care what the unbelieving so-called-scientists say. God does indeed answer prayer and I PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME for it. Amen and Amen!

Brother Larry
http://www.thelordsbaptistchurch.com