Prayer Retreat

The Prayer Retreat begins tomorrow. Make a point to attend.

For more info click:
http://www.hephzibah.net/hbc/upcoming_events

Missions and Hope (Wednesday Night Bible Study)

Wednesday night was really centered around two major things. First, we spent the majority of the time working on shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. We have participated in this for several years, and this year was no different. We wrapped and stuffed shoeboxes (some boxes were more beautiful than others). The ultimate purpose was to take part in the Great Commission.

We looked at Psalm 46 and the idea of hope. We have heard a lot about hope, but much of that discussion is not true to the Christian idea of Hope. The synopsis of all that we discussed was as follows: Though the world changes and people are crazy, the LORD is the one who brings true stability in our lives. And, the person who hopes in the LORD will never have his hopes dashed. As Christians, we should place all of our hope in the LORD, and in Him alone. Any time that we place our hope in anything other than the LORD we must pray for the faith to trust Him more.
-BD

Plans for Discipleship

On Monday night, Bobby and I did visitation a little bit differently than we would normally do. Instead of visiting houses or going door to door, there was an opportunity to hang out with some of our brothers in the Young Adult Ministry, so we took that opportunity.  

   Central Baptist Church was playing for the Championship in the Wendell Church Basketball league. I know that is alot to take in, so read it again if you need clarification. J. Liles for whatever reason is playing for another church, so we went to watch him in action. Philly was also there, so that was pretty cool. 

  While watching the game, Bobby ran into a guy that used to go to HBC, but due to some personal issues and family matters, has not been in a long time. Bobby talked to him for the better part of an hour, and they exchanged numbers and he may rejoin the fellowship, so that his soul may Rejoice with the Spirit that is within all of God's children! That made the trip over there more than worth it.

    I am going to take this opportunity to introduce an idea to the group. We are leaning towards having some kind of dinner or gathering (maybe a hunter gathering congregation) at two different locations: East Carolina, Greenville, NC, and NC State, Raleigh, NC.  The idea is to have the men at those campuses (and all campuses close to and surrounding them) come together at a local location and just hang out. While many of you may and probably do this already, some of us from HBC would like to come and just hang out, so that we may be a blessing to you and you to us. Too often we just see one another at church on Sundays, then everyone leaves and goes back to their lives, schools, etc.  We are the church, we love one another, and we need to be interacting and being involved. More to come on this topic. To God be the Glory in all things.... Be sure to read Aaron's article beneath this one on the other half of Monday Night visitation: Door to door style. Grace and Peace - Bubba

Monday Night Visitation/Evangelism (11/3/08)

  Monday night was truly a blessing. Once again, our numbers were down, but we still had 4 participating in taking the Gospel to the streets of Wendell, as well as others that were downtown praying for our state and our nation's elections. There were two groups. Aaron and Trel went door to door where we have been for several weeks in Holly Pointe (Aaron is the author of the next few paragraphs), while Bobby and myself went to do community ministry, which will be explained in another post.

    Tonight it seemed apparent that the gospel of Jesus Christ fell upon def ears and hard hearts. One man said, “who is it?” through his door, then proceed to ignore us as we left the gospel by his door. We then shared the gospel and gave a track to a seemingly reluctant lady on her way to bed. Another man told Trell and I…”I go to church”, “not interested”, “don’t need it”. Lastly, we met a mother in the middle of cooking who said we could come back another time. She received a succinct presentation and written copy of the gospel. However, her level of interest seemed questionable at best. 

      Yet, this was not all that God had for Trell and I tonight. As I was taking Trell home, he requested that we stop by a store to get a soda. I agreed, so we stopped in at the Trans II Mini Mart. While at the convenient store, we introduced ourselves to Phillip, the cashier. I explained our desire to share Jesus and proceeded to ask him what Jesus meant to him. Phillip responded by saying he was a catholic, which was superfluous to the question, so I kindly repeated it. This time he said that he believes in God and Jesus, but that he only practices his faith about 50%. I shared the fact that the demons believe and shudder (James 2:19). It takes more than an intellectual “belief”; Christ must be your LIFE (Colossians 3:1-4)! Then I shared of Christ’s disgust with lukewarm people (Rev 3:15-16). Phillip also said that there are many other beliefs and that it’s just important that you believe in something. I explained to Phillip that this popular pluralistic belief is simply false, because only Christ has paid for our sins, allowing us to have a joyous relationship with God (John 14:6). No other god even claims to take away our sins. I felt the power of God as I shared the gospel in an all but pleading fashion. After much deliberation, I plainly told Phillip that he will either deny Christ with his life and spend eternity in punishment apart from God or that he will decide to live for Christ and experience abundant and eternal life in Christ for all eternity (Matthew 25:31-46). I told him I loved him and that Lord willing I would see him again. 

      We don’t know the types of soil the gospel fell on tonight, but we know that God’s word does not return to Him void. It accomplishes the purpose for which He sent it (Isiaah 55:10-11)! And we were encouraged to simply share the gospel for the sake of the name. Please pray for Phillip and the souls of these other un-named persons!