Christ Communicator

My trip to South Creek Church was thoroughly enjoyable. I was praying on the way down there and found myself thanking the Lord for the privilege of getting to preach the gospel in various churches around the country. Frankly, it’s only by His grace that I get to preach for one church. One of the more enjoyable aspects of preaching for other churches is meeting the people and observing the different styles and unique aspects of each church.

Please continue to pray for the main preaching pastor of South Creek, Jeff White, as he battles ulcers in his throat area. I had only talked with Jeff on the phone, so it was a real privilege to meet him in person yesterday. He, along with their pastor who leads the music named Justin, are great guys–immediately likeable and welcoming, and passionate for God’s glory. I’m already looking forward to being with their church again on April 13!

…with Aigerim from Kasakhstan.

Our church meeting this morning was quite enjoyable–A delicious breakfast, and then a Christ-exalting service in which we rejoiced that “He is risen!”  Since we normally meet in the evening, it seems strange to be home and just relaxing, not preparing for an evening gathering.  With the “free time,” I decided to go check out a few blogs and see what some friends and others I know are writing about, but then I made the mistake of going into the comments sections of a few of these blogs!  In particular, I’m talking about blogs where supposedly Christians are not only writing, but leaving comments.  I found myself saying a couple of times, “Wow, that was a very mean thing to say!” or “I can’t believe the author, who wrote such a good article, just responded to that person’s comment with such un-Christlike words.”  It’s one thing to speak hard truths, but it crosses the line when you attempt to punch the person in the face in cyber-space! 

But consider this: Even if we’ve never responded on a blog with arrogance or a mean spirit, we all have responded to somebody’s face with arrogance and/or a mean spirit. 

So, first of all, let us rejoice together today that because Christ is risen, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1), and let us consider Peter’s words, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). 

Second, I hope some of you will read and spread around the following article by Jim Elliff, titled, “Check Your Guns at the Door: Responding Like Christians to Blogs and Web Forums.”  This is a simple little article that will help us all consider how we, as Christians, should speak to one another on the internet.

On March 30, and then April 13, I will be preaching at South Creek Church in Springfield, Missouri.  Jeff White is the teaching pastor of this church, but he has developed contact ulcers on his vocal chords and therefore is having to take some time off from preaching.  Please pray for Jeff’s recovery, and also pray for my ministry to this church.

Katie and I will be traveling to Trinity Baptist Church in Vidalia, Georgia, in May for a whole weekend of teaching and preaching.  Katie is a bit excited!  Actually, I am quite excited as well because one of my best friends, Chris Vinson, is the pastor of this church.  In fact, if I had to choose a group of men that I would play a round of golf with, Chris would be in my foursome.  His wife, Jessica, keeps up a neat family blog with one of the best titles of a blog I’ve ever seen.  I will be teaching a childhood conversion seminar, and then preaching both Sunday morning and evening.

The conference was a real joy.  I especially enjoyed getting to know the people of Cornerstone Baptist Church a little better (I met some of them in November at a youth retreat), especially lunch on Saturday with a few of them at the Hillbilly Grill. I’m serious, that’s the real name of the restaurant! I had the bbq brisket. The teaching times, by God’s grace, seemed to go well.  Thank you for praying!

This Friday through Sunday, I will be teaching and preaching at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Lawson, Missouri (about 45 minutes away from where we live).  Friday evening, their main preaching pastor, Jeff Parks, will preach in the first session, and then I will take the second session.  On Saturday morning, I will teach in both sessions (an hour each), including a time of Q & A.  Finally, Sunday morning, I will preach at their morning service.  On Friday and Saturday, I will basically be teaching the content from the “Childhood Conversion: How Children Come to Faith in Christ” seminar.  Please pray. 

Striving to Prevent the Everlasting Misery of Our Children - This is a significantly condensed version of a chapter in the book we are writing.

Today we officially moved into our new home.  The move was very, very fast for three reasons: (1) We only had to travel about 2 miles from our rental home.  (2) I brought a large amount of boxes, etc., over yesterday [I was so sore this morning!]. (3) There were about a dozen other men from our church [with several younger teens and boys] who helped out!!!  Have we told you how much we love our church?

After we got done around  11:30 am, a couple of ladies in the church had prepared some food for us to eat. I asked Bob Eppler (a member of the church who, along with his wife Karen, provided an apartment for us when we first moved here) to pray that this would be the Lord’s house.  I would love to have his prayer recorded–he took us to the throne of grace and entrusted this house to the Lord and our children to the Lord’s care, and he prayed for our church and all of the children, that they would come to the Lord early and spend their lives in service to Him.  Tremendous.  Amen.