BFM Spring Conference (Monday Night)

The 51st Annual BFM Spring Conference kicked off tonight at Thompson Road Baptist Church! We were blessed by two sermons about “Pressing Forward for the Glory of God.” I’ll do my best to recap them here.

Bro. Sherl Thomas from Emmanuel Baptist Church of Irvine, Kentucky
Pressing Forward for the Glory of God (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12)

1)Suggests there’s a worthy endeavor involved…
2 Thessalonians 1:11- interlinear=”that YOU would count worthy of the calling of God” (see Colossians 1:12…you have been made worthy by His finished work!)

Why missions is a worthy endeavor:
-It’s a scriptural mandate (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16…)
-Because of the depraved condition of fallen man (condemned, dead in sins, at enmity with God…only hope is the Gospel)
Matthew 9:10-13- They don’t need a band-aid, they need a heart transplant. God never saved anyone who never knew they were lost. Must see your sinful condition and need for a Savior.

2)Suggests there are obstacles involved…
Satan hinders.
1 Thessalonians 2:17-18- Paul’s hindrance was his absence; His solution was to send Timothy (1 Thessalonians 3)
We may be hindered by being physically absent from our missionaries, but we can support them by praying and giving.

3)Every worthy endeavor requires that we be motivated.
We keep pressing if there’s motivation. (2 Thessalonians 1:12)
Our motivation is the glory of God! Everything we do should be done to bring glory to God!

Bro. Greg Waltermire from Heritage Baptist Church of Lexington, Kentucky
Grapes or Gripes? (Numbers 13:23-29)
Same evidence, but different mindsets.

vs. 23-27- Grapes
Their report: Everything God told us is true! They brought back a single cluster of grapes, an example of God’s faithfulness and evidence of His providence. “Yes, there’s challenges, but look at these grapes!”

vs. 28-29- Gripes
“Nevertheless” (Hebrew for “uh-oh” hahaha!)

What do you see in ministry? Something too big to hit or too big to miss? (Example: David saw Goliath as something too big to miss while everybody else saw him as something too big to hit.)
Do you see opportunity or do you see problems?
Do you see discipleship or do you see drudgery?
The providence of God will either please your spirit or plague your flesh.
Do you see the value or the cost?

Scripture @ Sunrise 2.12.09

“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord.
‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways
and My thoughts than your thoughts.'”  -Isaiah 55:8-9

Happy 200th Birthday, President Lincoln! 

As many of you know, I took a class last semester titled, “Lincoln: The Writer.”  I did not even know the title of the course until I went to class.  The time just fit with my schedule well.  Little did I know that I would become a huge fan of Abraham Lincoln and gain a greater respect for the marble man by looking at his intricate writing process. 

So today, on his bicentennial, I share with you one of my favorite private pieces he wrote in the midst of the Civil War and slavery. 

Lincoln’s Meditation on the Divine Will
“The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party; and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect his purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably true; that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By his mere great power on the minds of the now contestants, he could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And, having begun, he could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.”