bibletoyou

In the Old Testament we read where God gave His people bread from Heaven, miraculously saving them from physical death while journeying in the wilderness. Nehemiah 9:15 says “And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.”

In the New Testament, God gave the Bread of Heaven! John 6:33 highlights Jesus as that Bread. “For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.”   In John 6:51 Jesus proclaims himself to be that Bread, the Spiritual Bread which is all we need to satisfy our need for salvation of our soul.  Jesus said  “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

John 6:58 makes clear that the God of Heaven miraculously fed a nation of people in the wilderness for 40 years, and that same God later sent His own Son; “This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.”

Brother and sister in Christ, rejoice in that Bread which came down from Heaven.  As we traversed this spiritual wilderness,  God miraculously saved you from dying an eternal death in Hell and the lake of fire!

Bible To You is still alive and being blessed by God.  We are also receiving blessings that leave us with nothing to do but praise Him, our Lord, an ever present help.  With the new radioactive medicine used recently in treating Carl, all spots of cancer in his spine and lymph nodes are gone!  Carl’s PSA count has finally dropped to a .3. This is amazing!  Kays pain level is much lower and she is able to care for our home, cooking, and Bible To You fairly well, which was the desire of her heart.

Another blessing is that a lady accepted the Lord as her Savior while doing lesson one, a few weeks ago.  Many of our students have been sending notes of thanks for the lessons.  Some are growing in the Lord, which is obvious by their letters back to us.  For instance, one person wrote this when she returned her lesson on Bible versions: “Wow what an eye opening lesson.”, and she also said “God gives us gifts sometimes we don’t even realize. I’ve realized God gave me you as a gift, studying and learning from your lessons…”

Another person wrote: I just want to thank you guys for allowing Christ to work through you, and to be able to bless me.  Everything that’s being sent to me from Bible To You is a blessing, helpful, and inspirational.  It not only helps me to get closer to God, but it helps me to become free from my sins, also to become a better person.”

Yes, we still have difficulties and trials to work through, but we have been given more time to serve the Lord.  We continue working with Bible To You. We are truly blessed by God.  We trust that you also are experiencing blessings as you worship and serve the Lord.

While having devotions in the book of Exodus today, I began to wonder how big the Red Sea was that God separated for his children? So I looked up its’ size and found it to be  approximately 1,400 miles long, with a surface area of roughly 169,100 square miles. Its maximum width is about 220.6 miles and it reaches a maximum depth of 9,970 feet at the central Suakin Trough.

Then I thought, “There were two seas mentioned in the Bible that God overpowered for his children.”  Later in the day I was relating these thoughts to two others, wishing to encourage them in our days of many trials and tribulations. One of them reminded us that God also divided the Jordan River for both Elijah and Elisha.

Now we were really finding ourselves rather humbled for allowing the trials of life to get us down, but also lifted up as the conversation continued.  Two of us almost declared at the same time that the ground was even dry for the people to walk on!  It would normally have been saturated to a great depth, leaving it impossible to walk over, but it was dry!

Many times we feel tossed about on the sea of life, whether by financial difficulties, physical trials, personal problems, or any other storms of life. Life can present deep seas and wide rivers, but let us encourage you to trust in the God of all power.  He is the God who cares for his children, the God who hears and answers prayer, the God who made the world and the entire universe, the God who overpowers deep seas and wide rivers, even providing dry ground!

Do you remember the old adage, “Only what’s done for Christ will last”?  The saying may be old, but the truth of it is still the same.  While writing a “Bits of Home Chat” for our “Bible To You” students this week, I felt the need to help them to give their all to Jesus, to serve Him. This is what I wrote:

“It does not matter what grades you made in school or if you are cross eyed (I was for years), or if you are nice looking, nor if you are not nice looking.  Carl and I just want each of you to understand that you are special to Him and that He loves you and knows your abilities.  He is all knowing and all powerful.  He made the dumb to speak and the blind to see; He can help you to serve in His work that He knows you can do.

Stay in His Word, pray without ceasing, and do all that you know you should do.  I was reading in Ezekiel, and it dawned on me that God knew that Ezekiel had a mind for numbers and such.  He also knew that he was fully dedicated to His God.  God was able to show Ezekiel the temple, in the Spirit, in a finished state, and to tell him every measurement of every part.  He used Ezekial’s abilities because Ezekiel was sold out to Him, the God of Israel!

There was a poor man from a little-known place, a woman, and countless everyday people who were used by the Lord in  great ways as leaders in the Book of Judges and in the New Testament and so forth.  I do not know what you can do, but I know that, in Christ, you can do things with eternal value, things you could not do on your own.  I like to say that Carl and I were not smart enough to plan and execute Bible To You!”

Now, in closing, let me remind you all that, after all, only what’s done for Christ will last!

God has carried us through more weeks and months of difficult times physically.  There is no one to stand in the gap here.  We are still able to reach out to a small degree with our lessons.  We are also praying and seeking help to advance the outreach, with the Word of God, through the internet.  Please pray for God’s perfect will in this.  We have three godly men, at present, who are seeking affordable and manageable resources.

That will most likely usher in a new era for reaching and teaching with “Bible to You” lessons.  It will call for technical advancements, new methods, and new church workers across America.  It puts a smile on our faces, knowing that God has led all the way, and God continues to lead.

God has also supplied for this outreach all of 28 years.  We look to him to supply in all future needs as well!  It is good to be back at the “Keys” here, but I shall close for now.  God’s blessing to all who read this blog!  May you be drawn ever closer to your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Dear ones, your writer has been undergoing physical struggles which greatly reduce my ability to write this blog.  That grieves us, but we are still going on with weekly work in Bible To You at the home station, hoping others are following our footsteps for Jesus.

Dwayne, who is a friend and a former pastor, recently carried the BTY work to The Sword of the Lord conference in North Carolina. He set up our display and stayed with it to answer questions and give out free thumb drives of the lessons to those who planned to use the lessons in various ways.  One gentleman said he wished to use the junior lessons for his bus kids.  That’s a wonderful way to build some young people up in the Word!

We have not met with Dwayne to learn more about his time there.  After we do, we will endeavor to pass the good news on to you.  In the meantime, please carry on the work that God has given you.  Utilize Bible To You in any place and in any way that you are able.

Please contact us to let us know how you are using the lessons.  That would be a real encouragement to us as well as something we can pass on so others can follow in your footsteps for Jesus!

Fundamentalists hold to certain standards, but time and experience has shown that standards have weakened, wobbled and, in some cases, crashed!  So, the question is, are your standards from those who weakened, those who wobbled, those who crashed, or those of Christ???

While developing “Bible To You” lessons, the Lord called on us to write on living a new life in, of, and for the Lord Jesus Christ.  We loved the challenge of prayerfully searching God’s Word for the clear teaching of His standard of living.  What we found was that our God’s ways certainly are not many of our ways, not even the ways of many of us who preach and teach God’s Word on a regular basis!

How would you like to honor your Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, allowing the Holy Spirit more freedom to work in and through you?  Several lessons, in particular, of  New Life Series will be of great value to you, if you work through them hungering and thirsting to be more like the Master.

The song, More like the Master, by Charles H. Gabriel, which is sung in many of our churches, is a cry to God that expresses a prayerful need that only the Word of God can fully satisfy. The first verse and chorus go as follows:

More like the Master I would ever be,
More of His meekness, more humility;
More zeal to labor, more courage to be true,
More consecration for work He bids me do.

• Refrain:
  Take Thou my heart, I would be Thine alone;
  Take Thou my heart, and make it all Thine own;
  Purge me from sin, O Lord, I now implore,
  Wash me and keep me Thine forevermore.

If you want to be more like the Master, or if you want those under your teaching to be more like the Master, we encourage you to utilize these lessons from the New Life Series: Lesson 2, Holy God, Holy People;  Lesson 3, Be An Example;  Lesson 6, Grieve Not The Holy Spirit Of God; Lesson 7, The Walk Of The Believer;  Lesson 8, The Work Of The Believer.

In closing, may Christ be greatly glorified through the teaching of His Word found in these lessons, as more of us become more like the Master! Amen

Hey there folks!  Hope you are all well, or at least feeling sustained by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!  Here’s a question for you,  Is it time for us to simply enjoy our comfort zone and leave off caring for the place we worship?   That is the same question God asked in  Haggai 1:4,  “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?”  What condition is your church building in?  Are you willing to do some things to work along with others and clean, paint, repair, or do outside work? 

Our people at Faith Baptist Church recently decided to update our building by painting the auditorium, the entryway, and the stairway to the basement, plus finish laying the carpet tiles in the basement.  It was amazing to see the couples from newlyweds to those married 55 years, and some children come together and work with a heart for the place we meet, the place we worship God, learn the Word, pray, sing, give praise to God, and invite others to hear the preaching of God’s Word. 

Here is another question for you, “Do you know what time it is?”  God’s inherent Word reminds us in Romans 13:11  “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” It is time to wake up spiritually and live a godly life, leading and teaching others. The harvest time is almost over!  This is reinforced in I Corinthians 7:29,  “But this I say, brethren, the time is short:”…! In I John 2:18 God assured us of an end of the church age by saying,  “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.”   

It is the last time for spiritual harvesting by believers.  By the scriptures given above, we know that it is nearly time for our work here to be ended. The sad truth is that we may be responsible for allowing some to be lost eternally because we chose to shirk God’s work!  Jeremiah prophesied, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” Jeremiah 8:20

Things are Springing Up around here!  God has heard and answered our prayers for Bible To You to come more alive in our home place.  Nee Htoo has filled in the last three Bible Basics (Theology) lessons now, and has sent them back to us to be used as answer keys.

Next, we will put these together with the first six Bible Basics lesson that he did, and send copies of  them to Brother Taylor’s home base in Tennessee.  The workers there will be responsible to get them to Thailand where Brother Taylor is caring for the New Life Ministries, an orphanage.  He will then get the copies to a national missionary who did some of the original lesson translating in the Karen language.

Nee had already worked through our first series, Finding Direction in God’s Word, so that will also be sent for Brother Taylor’s missionary friend to use in discipleship of Karen Christians.

Another highlight for this time was when a letter came from a lady we had worked with but lost contact.  We knew she was growing in the Lord, so when she no longer responded we were very sad and worried for her.  We prayed earnestly for her for some time.  God got her back to us recently with a letter from her saying that she had been moved around and that she wanted very much to return to the Bible studies.  One of the ways God had cared for her during the blank time, was that He had her placed in her home State, closer to her family. We are praising God for this!

This week we received lessons from a person we did not send to initially. Their lesson was copied, possibly from the internet.  There was also a request in one lesson for us to send lesson one to someone in the Virgin Islands.

Now, as we (all Christians) think of the coming of Spring, we need to go forth planting new seeds, and pray earnestly for a good harvest.  Will you be moving out, planting new seeds?  We hope so; we pray so.