Wednesday Night Bible Study Agenda

Heads up tomorrow night we will be in Exodus 24, so feel free to look over the chapter.
Agenda
Welcome
Testimony
Prayer
Exodus 24
Benediction

Giving a Defense (Visitation 1/26/09)

To those of you who have missed my input on the blog, I apologise for my lack of posts. There have been some great things this year going on Monday nights, and I have failed as a writer to let you all in on the joy. Last night, we had a smaller group than we have grown accustomed to seeing, but the Lord moved in a great way. We had only one group of 3 go out, and went to only one house. And to the best of my knowledge, we set a record for the longest night of visitation for Monday nights. This visit will lay heavy on my heart for some time to come.
The couple we met with were Mormons who attend the Latter Day Saints church in Zebulon. They have been members of that belief for 40 years, and were set in their ways. And while little progress was made from the beginning of the visit to the end, the Gospel was shared, and the seed was planted. They had grown up in protestant churches in their youth, went off to a protestant college, and had issues with accepting some of the wonderful Truths that have been revealed to us through God's word, namely the Trinity and the fullness of deity in all Three. And while they did not repent on this evening, it is very possible the Lord may use this as a segway to open their eyes and their hearts to His truth sometime in the future. Also, those of us who were sharing gained a vast knowledge of the heresy that is spreading like wildfire throughout the world. We were respectful and listened, but were bold when necessary to defend the faith and the hope that are within us.

"Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame." 1 Peter 3:14-17

There were some convicting things shared with us as well. The Latter Day Saints have 55,000-60,000 missionaries stationed throughout the world. While in Thailand, Coop saw some in the village he was ministering in. While in Honduras, we saw some in Ville San Francisco. They are truly taking their message and spreading it. How much moreso should we, being entrusted with the Truth and the Gospel, be sharing it to the ends of the earth?

We also need to be sure of what it is that we beleive. The only ways for this to happen are to be reading our Bibles, understanding what we are reading, and to be in the company of one another, encouraging each other with what we have been reading, and growing in the knowledge, faith and love of our Lord and Savior. If these things sound familiar, that is because we have been talking about them in Bible studies and in Scott Kellum's teachings on Sunday Nights. Test the spirits. Weigh everything you hear from anyone against God's Word in the Bible. We must not be led astray because of our ignorance. We need to continue loving one another as Christ loved the church. Grace and peace, and hope to see you all on Wednesday or Sunday. If you would like to talk about these things, or anything, call me or contact me on Facebook. Love you guys. -Bubba

Soften up

We are trying to make a more concerted effort in updating the blog. So, as we wait for the visitation report, I just want to share what the LORD has been encouraging me with.

 

"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." -Ephesians 4:32

 

There are a couple of things that have been just amazingly convicting to me lately. The biggest is unquestionably the lack of compassion that I have found in myself lately. One of my New Year's resolutions was just simply to be more kind (loving) by acting on the Holy Spirit's leadings in my life. As yesterdays post probably illustrated, I fail daily at this task. I was reading Ephesians 4:32 today, and was just impressed by a couple things.

 

1. Kind and tenderhearted can not be measured. We talk a lot as the church about responsibilities. I think we want a list of our responsibilities, so that we can say that we meet them. How do you meet the standard of tenderhearted? There is no measurable action, emotional response or thought process for us to say that we are tenderhearted. We can say when we have forgiven someone, because it is a response to being wronged. It is just hard to be tenderhearted. The idea behind tenderhearted is having an emotional response that is just amplified to feel the pain of others. I have to ask myself, am I aware of my brothers and sisters' pain to a level that it affects me emotionally? I have to answer that question, most of the time, with a "NO." God calls for more than our own legalistic standard hold us to in our love for one another.

 

2. God constantly reminds us of the great debt that we have been forgiven. Any time that someone has wronged me, I have to remember the crucifixion of our Lord, in which he carried our great debt of wrongs on his shoulders. In no way has any one wronged me in the way that I wronged God. Every sin that I committed was a slight to God's glorious person.  I can't think that some one has done anything to me that was as pernicious as my sin against God. Yet we act that way some time.

 

The world fights against this all the time. We are told to worry about ourselves, and ignore the homeless. We are told that our happiness is the most important thing. I encourage you all, myself cheifly, to pray that God would soften our hearts for his glory and fame. Practically: Feel each others pain. Forgive and forget each others shortcomings.

BD

In Deed and in Truth

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

1 John 3:18

 Let's just imagine for a moment that you are one of the few Christians in your work or school environment. You and a couple of other people, who are not Christians, overhear of someone's desperate need. You have regular contact with this person, and you find this person to be more of an annoyance than anything else. So, you ignore the problem and just assume that it will get better by itself, and think nothing more of it. Well, one of your non-Christian associate's heart just breaks for this person, and the person does something about the need. When the needy person finds out that someone has made an anonymous gift, the needy person is just overjoyed (..."like Christmas come early, or late... its just a good Christmas present").

 

How would you feel if you were the Christian? Do you ever get indifferent about the needs of others? How do you feel towards the "least of these?" The Bible tells us that what we have done unto the least, we have done to Him. It is amazing to me how often that I as a Christian am just indifferent to the needs of others. Sometimes, I am just willfully ignorant of other people's needs. I pray that God would once again soften our hearts to show love to those who many would deem unloveable. It may be something so small and insignificant, but very meaningful to people who need so much.

 

  Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.(Hebrews 13:20-21)

 

BD

 

Bull-session

I hope you are all doing well. I trust that each of you has had a good weekend, and are ready for another good week. I just wanted to share a little about what I have been thinking about lately. This past week was amazing for me. Many of you know that this week we started a new “Bible study.” We don’t really know where it will end up leading, but a couple of us were just convicted about starting it. For me, it is out of my real comfort zone. It is in Spanish, and it is not with a “Christian” group of people.

 

This is not a “Bible study” like we normally think of. It is more of a gateway “Bible study” for some people who don’t know the Lord. As I was sitting in the “Bible study”, I was thinking about some of the people that we have been praying for. We have a huge group of people that we have been asking that God would save. The reason that this “Bible study” started was that one of our brothers was just convicted about his family and friend’s lack of knowledge or concern about God. This brother knew that his family and friends would not come to the church building for a meeting, so he opened his own home. He told them that they were going to just spend some time each week learning about God. I learned a new word this week while reading a book about the early church. The writer called the Early Church’s method of evangelism a “bull-session.” I had no clue what a bull-session was so I googled it. It means an informal discussion group (topic is not important, in the early Christian case it was the Lord). That is exactly what we are doing on Thursday nights.

 

I think that many times we are just content with inviting people to “church”, but we don’t want to make the commitment of opening our own homes to these people. I just want to challenge you, the four of you who read this, to pray about what God would have you do to reach your friends and family. I think that if you started one of these “bull-sessions” you would not have a problem getting a commitment from these people. Just ask some of your closest not-yet-believing friends to commit for 5 weeks to hanging out in your home and learning some stuff about God. You don’t have to be a “certified” teacher, but you do need to be open to talking about the gospel with your friends and families.

 

Thursday and Wednesday nights are not good for me, but any other day is good for me. I am willing to help any of you if you need me too. I am praying that God will open our hearts and our homes to those who need to know the gospel.  

 

I love you all and I am praying for you,

BD