Other Than Sunday

Welcome to Our World
I am pleased to announce the birth of two new baby girls! Jordan Michelle Nielsen, daughter of Jessie and Gena Nielsen, was born Monday morning about 8 am. She weighted 6lbs 13ozs and was 20inches long. Mom and baby and dad are doing well. They came home this afternoon.

Madelyn Nicole Fryer, daughter of John Randal and Nikki Fryer, was born Tuesday night about 10:30 pm. She weighted 6lbs 11ozs and was 193/4inches long. They are all doing well also. They should be coming late Thursday evening or Friday morning. They are in Glenwood hospital in West Monroe.

Congratulations to both families! We will be praying for all of you. Let us know if we can help in any way. We love you all!

Doctrine Reading Group
We met for the first session Tuesday morning in two groups. The 6 am group consisted of 10 people and the 7:30 am group consisted of four. Praise the Lord! And I know that there will be 3 more people to join us next week. It was a wonderful time together. I am just amazed that there are some people who are willing to meet that early in the morning to read theology. Fantastic! May our number increase! I will be posting here some of the discussion questions and maybe some other little tidbits for our group and others to read. If you would like to join us, it is not too late, but you need to join us ASAP.

This week is just flying by. I can't believe it's Wednesday afternoon already. I need to prepare for tonight's bible study for our Praying Meeting. I have begun a study in Proverbs. It is going to be a wonderful study I believe. Please come and join us.

Until next time, may God bless you richly!

I was reading the scripture this morning, keeping my commitment to read the bible through again this year. The portion of scripture I was reading is from Matthew 17. It told of how Jesus had taken Peter, James and John up on a mountain where His glory was revealed before them. Also present were Moses and Elijah. That must have been an incredible sight! Peter certainly thought so. "Let us build monuments to this moment!" He missed the whole point of the moment, just like many of do most of the time. But, it didn't stop there. They had the privilege of experiencing the "Shekinah" glory of God, of being not only with Moses and Elijah but with Jesus in all of His glory unveiled. Talk about a "mountain top experience!

Then the moment was over. They returned to reality, as we all must do. Immediately there was a ministry opportunity. Having come from such an experience they should have been ready for anything; but they were not.

They met a man who had a demon possessed son. Apparently Jesus' disciples had tried to help, but could do nothing for the young man. Jesus delivered the young man from the demons and immediately he was well.

When the disciples were along with Jesus they asked Him why they could do nothing for the young man. I'm sure they tried earnestly tried, but had also earnestly failed. Jesus told them that they reason they could not help the young man was that, and I quote from "The Message" translation as I have been reading the bible through this time, "Because you're not yet taking God seriously." They could not help the young man because they weren't taken God seriously. Now, I'm sure they thought they were taking Him seriously, but Jesus said they were not. Jesus went on to them them about faith the size of a mustard seed being enough to move mountains. I'm sure they were shocked to here they didn't even exercise the smallest amount of faith they thought they had.

I really think that a lot of Christians don't really take God seriously. They think they do, but they do not. Therefore they can't even exercise they smallest amount of faith. I know that I have fallen into the category so many times. God help my unbelief!

Let's begin to take God more seriously. If we see our lives, our ministries as failures, maybe, just maybe it's because we don't really take God seriously. Repent and believe today.....along with me.

Last night at our Wednesday evening Praying I presented God's Guidelines for making a plan, taken from this months "In Touch" devotional by Charles Stanley. My point was this: we need to make some concrete commitments for this year of our Lord 2008. I don't call them Resolutions because, in my estimation, resolutions revolve around what I can do of and by myself. Commitments are really about what I want God to do through me. For instance, many will resolve to become better off financially by getting out of debt. That indeed is a worthy resolution. That is one that my wife and I made about 5 years ago. We are not quite there yet, but we're getting there. Did that happen because we just decided to do it? Only partially. We did it primarily because we wanted God to be glorified in our lives and that we can participate in ministry financially. We have not been able to do this just because we decided to do it. I know myself well enough to know that would not work; history shows that. We did not resolve to get out of debt, we made a commitment to God to get out of debt. Having done that, He empowered us to do so; He provided the resources to do so. As we continue in our commitment, God is being glorified in that commitment.

The same goes for any commitment you want to make. Make that commitment to the glory of God, not just for your good. The wonderful outworking of that commitment is that it will result in your good.

I've already read a couple of other blogs that speaks of commitments that many make during this time of year. One blog said that we should commit ourselves to be in God's Word this year. That is a resolution that many make, but being only a resolution, most fail. Commit yourself to bringing glory to God this year by reading His Word through. There are lots of resources to help you do so.

I've started once again to read the bible through this year. I'm going to do it on my computer this year. I use a couple of Bible software programs in my studies, one of which is Wordsearch 8. Their website is www.wordsearchbible.com. It is an excellent program. Anyway, that's the way I'm going to read through this year. I'm reading 3 chapters of the Old Testament, 1 Psalm and 2 chapters of the New Testament each day. Also, as you read, don't forget to make notes (get you a bible you can write in if you don't already do so) as you read.

Eveyrone have a great day in the Lord. I'll write more next time on commitments for this year.