Trip to Idaho

I preached the final sermon in a series of sermons from the eleventh chapter of Hebrews today at TLBC. The title of the message was "Faith and Compensation" and the outline can be seen on our church website. click here

Marion and I drove over to Naples, Idaho last Wednesday and attended the celebration services of the 30th Anniversary since the organization of the Bible Believers Baptist Church there. We saw the Turners at a rest stop named "Indian John Hill". They were on the way to Idaho too and we all had a wonderful time. I preached Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night. My sermons were "Things to Look for at a Good Bible Conference", "Sin and Death on Calvary", and "Preaching Jesus." The hospitality of the dear saints there was out of this world - that means GOOD. God has been good to them and they really want to give all the honor and glory to Him. Although the meeting continued on through Saturday and Sunday, Marion and I had to return home to hold the Fort at TLBC. Several of our members were there in Idaho for this special event and some of the other preachers were Elder Jim Turner, Elder Jim Tweet, and Elder Perry Ames. We should have just about all of it captured on DVD.

As the saying goes, it takes all kinds to make the world go around. I met a man who seemed to be very filled up with himself who visited the services one night. He talked so much about himself and what he had discovered in all of his study that it was practically impossible to get a word in edgewise. As soon as I introduced myself to him he began to talk and in the first fifteen or twenty minutes he managed to slander two of my friends, insult me, unchurch my flock, her mother church, her grandmother church and several hundred other sound New Testament churches all because of his personal interpretation of a paragraph he read in some history book somewhere about an old time Baptist preacher that was at one time identified as a Separatist.

The gentleman said he was a member of a church in North Carolina but had moved out West to get away from some of the controversey among the churches. He was full of grand revelations of the faults of so many and was so righteous about it in that he didn't call any names. I asked him if he attended church anywhere and he said he had Bible Studies in his home. It sounded pretty clear to me that he was the kind of fellow that could not get along very well with anyone where ever he might be. Bless his heart. Thank goodness that the icecream for the fellowship after the service was melting and we had to break off the conversation for that. He followed me down to the fellowship hall and persisted with his monologue (you could not have a dialogue with him) althought I was able to squeeze in some counsel that I hoped would help him in the future by talking over him with a blunt shock effect and a little more force with powerful gestures. Our loving host again came to graciously invite us to have some wonderful huckleberry pie a-la-mode and I thought, "Isn't the Love of Jesus Something Wonderful." I wish I could have gotten some pictures of the precious saints in Idaho but they are a little camera shy. They were indeed a blessing of the Lord to this preacher and his wife. We thank the Lord for them.