Sunday Summary

Greetings Blogosphere!!

This is the day that the Lord has made! I will rejoice and be glad in it!! This past Lord's Day was an awesome experience in the Lord! I was not feeling my best at all, but the saints at BBC prayed me through. Our topic for Early Morning Prayer was "Walking in Love". The service was very high and there was expectancy in the air! I got a real good feel that the people of God were expecting God to do something great!

From devotion to the benediction the saints worshipped the God of their salvation. The choir really blessed our hearts with songs of Zion! As I stated earlier, I was not feeling my best, but I was really expecting God to use me in a mighty way. God desires to get the glory out of our lives and sometimes He has to move us out of the way so that He can use us.

I approached the preaching moment with great anticipation and expectancy! We continued in or series on "The Word of God" taken from Psalm 119. This week, the message was from verses 9-16. The message was entitled, "Washing with the Word". I only had 2 points but here's the outline:

1. Delight in the Word
A. Heed (9)
B. Hold (10)
C. Hide (11-12)

2. Duty to the Word
A. Tell (13)
B. Treasure (14-15)
C. Try (16)

God really blessed the exposition of this passage!! This series on the Word of God has breathed new life into our church family. I believe that a serious spirit filled revival of the saints has started and I look forward to watching God transform the lives of many!! I was very elated to see a young man that had been visiting for several weeks, give his life to the Lord as a Candidate for Baptism!! God is truly worthy to be praised!!

Well now I am off to a week full of meetings and readings, along with all other pastoral preparations. I will ask for your prayer for CURE. It is the organization that I help to oversee. We are engaging ourselves in study circles to see what God wants us to do about institutional racism. I know this sounds like an impossible task, but we believe that " We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!" Be Blessed!!!

Sunday Summary

Greetings all in the Precious Name of Jesus the Christ! We had an awesome time in the Lord at BBC this past Lord's Day. Our Day started as normal with our Early Morning Prayer Meeting. Our Hospitality Ministry is in charge of prayer for the month of January. The topic was endurance. The prayers were fervent and much appreciated! This ministry of prayer has really been the glue of our church and I thank God for the diligence of the prayer warriors. I stand to tell you that a few people can really make a difference.

We were blessed this past Lord's Day with songs from our Male Chorus and they really ushered in a spirit of praise. I was really excited about preaching this series on the Word of God. I believe it will once again prove God's Word when He said that His word will not return to Him void, but will accomplish that for which He sent it! I am excited about the fruit that will come as a result of a people falling in love again with His Word!!

I approached the preaching moment with great enthusiasm! I preached a message from Psalm 119:1-8, entitled, "The wonder of the Word" Here's the outline:

1. The Word will make you Delightful

2. The Word will make you Devout

3. The Word will make you Diligent

God really blessed the exposition of this text! This will prove to be a busy week as I have made the decision to finish my education! I had 3 classes on yesterday and they were delightful, but I have tons of homework to do, so off I go. Pray for me as I try to find balance to my schedule again! I will begin posting Wednesday in the Word again hopefully on tomorrow!!

Sunday Summary

It was a pleasure to be in the Lord's presence this past Lord's Day. Unfortunately for me, I did not make Early Morning Prayer Service, due to the fact that my grandparents were in town. It brought me great joy to bring the New Year in with them.

I am always excited about the 1st Sunday of the year. To me in represents the start of a new opportunity. There was so much excitement and expectation in the atmosphere that you could almost cut it with a knife. Our numbers were down due to over a foot of snow, but the spirit was high!

The choir blessed us in song and I was really ready to preach. I approached the preaching moment with great anticipation! I began a new series entitled, "Building on the Word of God". I introduced this series from the book of Nehemiah 8:1-6. The sermon was called, "We want the Word". Here's the outline:

1. Hunger for the Word (V.1)

2. Hearing of the Word (V. 2-4)

3. Honoring of the Word (V.5)

4. Heeding to the Word (V.6)

God really blessed the exposition of this passage and I was encouraged by several of our members that this is what will get us to the place that God has for us. Several of them told me that their prayer for the year was that they would get into the Word of God more this year. God always has a way of confirming His Word for His people. I can't wait to preach the next sermon in this series. This Sunday we will be sharing from Psalm 119:1-8. I ask for your prayers for this series. God Bless and keep you.

Sunday Summary

Greetings Everyone!!!

I want to start this post off by thanking everyone who has contacted me about my absence from the blogosphere. Names are too numerous for me to call and I don't want to leave anyone out, so thank you all! I really am overwhelmed about the concern for me and my well doing from people all over this country who have only met me through this venue. I am glad to be back with the "Blogging Bunch"!!

Today we had wonderful worship in BBC. This day started off with our Early Morning Prayer Service. For the month of December our youth are in charge of prayer meeting. It is truly a joy to see young people engaged in prayer meeting. I believe that we are building a foundation with these young people that will hold them and make them mature Christians. The prayers were fervent and faith filled as the people of God poured out their hearts to Him.

Today being 2nd Sunday, we were blessed with songs of Zion from our Male Chorus. I was lifted by seeing these men sing praises to God! I was very excited about preaching today and could not wait to get the message that the Lord gave me out of me. Today, I understood what Jeremiah said when he described God's Word being in his heart as a burning fire shut up in his bones! Don't get me wrong, I love, cherish, and am excited EVERY opportunity I have to preach, but today, I was really fired up about speaking on behalf of God. I preached a message today from Isaiah 9:6 entitled, "The Gift that keeps on giving". Here's a brief synopsis of the message:

The Gift that keeps on giving was:

1. Sensible

The text says, "For unto us a child is born". This made it a sensible gift. Our Messiah came to us and lived among us as a real human being. He felt pain, rejection, frustration, headache, heartache, and everything else that we feel. What good would it be to have a Messiah that could not identify with what we go through everyday? This is why it is a sensible gift. The Bible say in Hebrews 4:15, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."

2. Spiritual

It goes on to say, "unto us a son is given." In normal Hebrew dialect when a son was introduced, he was introduced by the name of his father. In this instance, it was left out, not by accident, but to let us know that this Son is the Son of God! John records that we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. He was given to us, or should I say He was given for us. The bible declares that Jesus was a Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Jesus came to fix the spiritual problem with man. Our sin alienated us from God and Jesus became the propitiation or intermediary between sinful humanity and a Holy God. Romans says that He came for sin and condemned sin in the flesh. Jesus did not come for our creature comforts; clothes, cars, cribs, and cash, He came to rid us of sins penalty and power, and when He comes back, He will remove us from sins presence!! Glory to His name!!

3. Substantial

The last part of the verse says, "and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. All of the earthly kings whether good or bad could not handle all of the responsibility of ruling and reigning. They would forget some things or let some things go undone, but Jesus ca "shoulder" all of the responsibility!! This means that there is nothing in your existence that Jesus cannot handle!! If I were preaching now, I would say, "Is there anybody here that knows He can handle it? Have you any rivers that seem uncrossable? Have you any mountains, that you can't tunnel through? God specializes in things that seem impossible, and He can do what no other power can do!!!" I closed the message on the last part of the verse describing His name or His attributes.

God really blessed the exposition and presentation of this text. I thank God for giving me the power and passion to preach His Word!!

If I don't communicate with you anymore before Christmas, I want to wish from my family to your a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. May God richly bless you is my prayer!!!!

Wednesday in the Word

We witnessed a wonderful Wednesday in the Word!! Both of our Bible Study classes were well attended and the saints were eager and excited to learn! Our Sunday School Teachers Meeting went very well. I am excited about this teaching setting because the teachers are so excited about learning. The lesson was entitled, "The Promise of Life", taken from Deuteronomy 30:1-10. This was a very interesting lesson the showed the sovereignty and graciousness of God.

In the first 5 verses we see RESTORATION. I found it interesting that Moses was speaking of God restoring them to the land God had promised them before they actually inhabited it. Even with repeated warnings and promises of blessing for obedience and cursing for disobedience, the Israelites still did not follow the commands of God. In spite of their inadequacy and inability to follow God, God still had a plan for them! I get joy every time I think about this, because there are times why I don't do right, but God doesn't forfeit His plan because I have flaws in my person!! God tells them that if they return, He will restore them! What I really like about this is, God says that He will go as far as it takes to bring them back! Someone other than me has that testimony, that He came a long way to rescue me! Glory to His name!! God is in the restoration business. I don't know why we want god to be mad all of the time and get everyone as soon as they mess up. Do we forget that we mess up as well? God is looking to restore us.

Next the lesson talks about REPENTANCE. The section speaks of loving God with all of their being. To repent means to turn from sin and turn to God. I believe that many only have one step down. It's not enough to turn from sin, you must turn to God. A turn from sin without a turn toward God, creates legalism. Unfortunately, we have many in the church that are loyal to legalism, but not in love with the Lord!

The last section talks about REPLENISHMENT. Once God restores them and they repent God said that He would bless everything that they touched, their family, food, and farm would be blessed and plentiful. He also says that He would take pleasure in doing so. God loves to bless His people and do good to them!! Who wouldn't serve a God that loves to restore and to replenish?

In Bible Study we covered verses 16-21 of chapter 10 in Romans and verses 1-10 in chapter 11. This was a great lesson for our church . This lesson deals with God's dealing with Israel, Israel rejecting the Gospel, God extending the Gospel to the Gentiles, and God's future plan for His chosen covenant people. Where we really dropped anchor last night was in chapter 11 :1-4. Paul clearly states that God has not cast away Israel. Can I ask a question? If God has not cast away Israel and he still has a plan for them, how can the church be New Israel as I have heard it called so many times?

Paul gives 2 examples of why God is not through with Israel. First is a personal example. Paul says I know that God is not done with the Jews because he is one. Paul says, if Jesus can save him, He can save anyone! We need to apply this truth to our existence. No one is so good that they don't need to be saved and no one is so bad that they cannot be saved! If God saved me, He can save anyone!! The next example is one from a prophet. After a great victory on Mount Carmel against the prophets of Baal, Elijah receives word that Jezebel is going to kill him and he takes off running for his life. God asks him what is doing here. Elijah's answer is both anxious and arrogant. Look at what he says. 1 Kings 19:14 (KJV) And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. God responds by saying. 1 Kings 19:18 (KJV) Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. He tells Elijah that he is not the only one who is still serving. We need to take this to heart. Many people have the idea that if they don't do it, it wont get done. If you prescribe to this idea, I tell you what I want you to do, die and see if things continue to roll on. This is why I say it is a privilege to be in the service of the Lord. God don't need us, but Thank God that He chooses to use us!! God Bless!!