bibletoyou

Today we are announcing the rebirth of a man named Jonathan, who is in prison but not cast away by God.  A few weeks ago, one faithful student who is behind bars, asked us to send a lesson to another man in the prison, which we did.  The lesson came back with an affirmation that the new student had accepted Jesus’ salvation for himself the night before.  Whether our faithful student lead him to the Lord, or whether he accepted the Lord as he began working through the lesson was not clear, but we can see God working, and we rejoice!

Jonathan is a new babe in Christ who needs our lessons to grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord.  Please pray for  Jonathan.

A few weeks ago we received an email from a couple in Florida who asked for lessons by mail, which we sent ASAP.  They have already returned lesson one along with a request for us to send lessons to a person in Michigan. Once again, we can see God working!

God is able to do great things.  We all know that, but do we believe He will work when we can do little but pray?  This report just might increase your faith and aid you in doing what you can, praying, and trusting God to work in spite of your inability.

With aging bodies and a greatly increased work load at our church, we continue faithful in service through “Bible To You” in a much smaller capacity than we would like; and so we pray for God’s working. This week, God used the church situation to bring Bob Larson, the director of a work called “Reseeding America”, from a mission board called BIMI, to preach and minister to us at Faith Baptist.

While Brother Larson was here to minister to us, God used the time to introduce him to “Bible To You”.  Brother Larson now has knowledge of, and access to  King James discipleship lessons. You may think, “So what’s the big deal?”!  The big deal is that numerous missionaries have asked him, “Do you know of a good discipleship program?

Until now, Brother Larson had to tell those who asked that he did not know. From now on, he will be able to direct these serving brothers and sisters to “Bible to You”.  Without cost to them, they will now have a solid King James discipleship program available online or on a thumb drive!

Though we cannot travel to churches and missions conferences like we used to, and that grieves us, God has given a mission board connection.  BIMI is sending forth 800 missionary families and working to sustain churches in America, or plant new ones!

Now, all who are in contact with BIMI’s “Reseeding America” program can be referred to “Bible To You” lessons for use in their ministry. In answer to our praying, God has worked.  Again, this report just might increase your faith and aid you in doing what you can, praying, and trusting God to work in spite of your inability. We hope it does!

Many are lost and dying, far from the peaceful shore;                                                                      Some have just not listened, but many have never heard before!                                                  Oh, let us pray and labour! Let us tell of Father, Spirit , and Son;                                                Ever true to our blessed redeemer, let us labour till this great work is done!

A poem I had written in May of 2000. It is still my heart’s cry!

Psalm 96 has several verses containing our Baptist ways.  Verse 2 tells us to show forth his salvation from day to day.  We believe in witnessing to the lost around us. Our Baptists believe in separation from the world’s ways as well as from doctrines falsely derived by men. (Witnessing and separation)

Verse 3 says to declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people. Not only do we witness daily, but we also send forth missionaries to His glory!

Why do we do this? Verses 4&5 declare that the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: He is to be feared above all gods, and the Lord made the heavens.  He is Creator God!

Our God is so great that honour and majesty are before Him!  Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary!  As Baptists we join together in worship, prayer and fellowship regularly and faithfully.

Verses 8-10 Speak of God’s dues. 1. He is due glory to His name (Our lives are to be lived so that He is glorified) 2. He is due an offering when we come into His courts  3.  He is due our worship (because He is LORD)  3.  He is due our declaring to the heathen that He Reigns and that the world shall not be moved.  4. God’s due is that we tell the heathen that He will judge people, all people, righteously.

That’s an amazing Psalm describing many of our Baptist ways.

Who will go?  In I Samuel 26:6  David asked two men,  “Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp?”  And Abishai said, I will go down with thee. Two were asked to go with David, into the camp of their enemy, King Saul, who was seeking David to slay him.  Only one stepped out and accompanied David.

In Isaiah 6:8, Isaiah the prophet  responded to the question of God,  “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us”?   Isaiah understood that he was going to carry a message to a people who would not receive the very words he was to deliver.  Nonetheless Isaiah answered God, ” Here am I; send me.”

Who will receive the mantel?  The record of Elijah’s mantel and his departure from the earth, and Elisha’s desire to step into Elijah’s place, is found in II Kings 2:1-14.  It is the account of the end of one godly and faithful prophet’s life, and the one he trained, taking up the mantel and being found with double the amount of faith that Elijah had! Elisha then went on to serve the Lord, as a mighty prophet of God!

The baton must be passed if the race is to be won! In sporting events such as relay races, one team member carries a baton while running a portion of the way.  Another team member, who has strength for the next part,  moves in and accepts the baton as it is passed to him.

Carl and I are praying for the next one in the “Bible To You” race to accept the baton, and continue to run at full speed ahead for the Lord.  The next to work, advancing the lessons, adding to them, perhaps making booklets, and using the internet to reach and teach with “Bible To You”.  We need the next one who will let the churches, pastors, evangelists, teachers, church workers, and missionaries know that this tool is available!

Who will go; who will receive the mantel; who is prepared to accept the baton and run on? Plead with God to prepare an “Isaiah”, an “Elisha”, an “Abishai” or perhaps one of each!

This week our country has experienced violent weather.  Many states have had  blizzards, flooding, or tornadoes.  In this week’s Bits of Home Chat,  I shared many scriptures that speak of God’s causing earthquakes to show His presence, or to work out His plan in working with man and this sin cursed world.

A new listing of  Bits of Home Chat should be on the website soon.  they are from the first of this year until now. You may wish to watch for them.

Here are the scriptures on earthquakes that were in this week’s “Bits”:                                      Focus verse or memory verse: Matthew 24:7  For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

1Kings19:12;  Isaiah 29:6;  Amos 1:1;  Zechariah 14:5;  Matthew 13: 8; 27:54; 28:2 ; Luke 21:11;  Acts 16:26 ; Revelation 6:12;  8:5; 11:13 & 19; 16:18

America has gone far from God. Perhaps God is warning our Americans to repent and turn to Him. We believe He is. Whatever the reason, God is still in control!

1, 2, 3, GO! Have you ever gotten behind a car that needed pushed to get it moving? It usually takes more than one person to do the job, and they all have to be working together, right?  Here at the home of Bible To You, we are faced with a new challenge. One of our students needs lessons in the Karen language so he can take what he is learning, and then teach it in the Karen language, a language spoken in Myanmar and the border of Thailand.

We are in contact with several godly men who are using their time and effort to help move this need forward. Where do you come in, well, if you can’t help directly, then go to your prayer closet for us. God will use the caring of your hearts for this Christ centered effort to glorify his Son, in getting the gospel to these needy people.

Alright, 1, 2, 3, Go!

Hi Friends, How are you?  Are you able to reach and teach?  If you are not, I am so sorry; I know that hurts! Pray for us, will you?

If you are reaching and teaching, don’t excuse yourself and quit due to low response numbers. Pray and work; work and pray!

In recent weeks, we sent out multiple invitations to inmates, welcoming them to do Bible To You lessons. Though we sent to many, only 2 or 3 responded by doing lesson one on salvation. Of those three, one man said that he had been begging God to give him someone to help him in his Christian walk; one woman was very pleased to get the lesson for other reasons. At the same general time that those two returned their finished lessons and personal notes, we received a lesson one from a man who was either someone else’s sign-up or one of the multiple ones we sent out. He signed that he was saved the day he did the lesson.

We struggle with frustration over the hard work put forth with so little response. However, had we given up, who would have helped the first two?  Who would have reached the lost soul? So, once again, pray and work, work and pray!

This week our founder was able to spend quality time in the office, thanks to the Lord, who is adding strength, following his broken arm. He smiled when giving the tally for this week’s mail-outs. Together we prepared and sent out close to 100 lessons, 150 tracts, one Bible and 3 certificates for students who completed a series of lessons.

This brief entry is only to thank God and give honor to him, plus to encourage our readers and fellow servants. How many more weeks are left for harvesting is uncertain, but the condition of many people is hopeless apart from someone who will care for their souls.

Harvest labourers are needed today and every day until The Lord’s return for His Bride. are you harvesting in God’s field? If not, why not?  Jesus lamented to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few”.  He urged them to pray for more labourers.

You need not spend hours each day or each week. But are you willing to spend even a couple of hours teaching a Bible To You lesson to someone else? If a 76 year old man who battles cancer, a broken arm and sleep apnea can labour in the harvest, I’ll just bet that a lot of folks around are simply not answering the call. Whatever you can do, you should do! Harvest labourers are still needed!

Our family Christmas is like a reunion.  Our children and grandchildren all live and work in different areas. They all serve in Fundamental Baptist churches so their lives are busy. Their work hours also vary, keeping them from visiting each other much of the year.  But when Family Christmas rolls around, they do their best to get here to hug each other, share their own special stories of their year, and just enjoy each other’s company!

One day before Family Christmas I decided to clean the garage and bring people in through it, rather than have them enter by way of the “too small” front porch, which has a storm-door that tends to bang shut when released, shoving the last person through with a jolt!

We do not have a blacktop or cement driveway so dirt and silt are carried into the garage on the car’s tires.  Because I had neglected it too long, I had a lot of the stuff to sweep up and clean off the garage floor.  If I had not done that, our visitors would have been dragging dirt into the house, causing filth inside our home! I would not have been happy if all, or even part, of that dirt got dragged in! So, I made the decision to remove the dirt. I had to use  two different brooms followed by a couple of buckets of hot soapy water; what a job!  But, with the cleaning done, the garage held no more threat to my house. What a blessing!

Now that just reminds me of the Christians’ lives, and how we can get the dirt and silt from the world back into our spiritual lives through the brain, our physical garage. This world and it’s wickedness is literally raining down around us, washing its’ dirt into our lives and settling in the flesh’s garage, the  brain. From there it can easily be carried into our very lives, leaving the Holy Sirit within our house grieved!  Therefore it must be cleaned out, and the oftener, the better!

The Word of God, and sincere prayer of confession are two of God’s  brooms He gave us to keep filth swept up and cleaned out.  The blood of Jesus still washes away confessed sin like the buckets of hot, soapy water.

We need to check our human garages to see what filth has gotten in there, and we need to read, or remind ourselves, of  God’s Word, confess our faults to him, and then guard our human garages, so that we are no longer carrying the dirt back in!