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These next few weeks are going to hold changes for all of us as our communities work through the challenges posed by COVID-19. 
In the midst of these uncharted times, we who know Christ, can still proactively practice faith. And even when our world is turned upside down, we can trust that God is in control and that He is working. 
With that in mind, here are seven activities that can help you make the most of this God-ordained time:
1. Pray—Take time to cast your every burden on the Lord every morning and throughout the day. Parents, take time to pray with your children and to spend time with them around the Word of God each day. Pray for your pastor. Pray for your boss or co-workers. We can worry, or we can pray. 
2. Help—Help a senior or a widow. Perhaps this means just dropping something at their doorstep, perhaps writing a note or a card. I’m thankful for the deacons of Lancaster Baptist who are checking in on nearly one hundred widows throughout these upcoming weeks. All of us should jump in to help those who have special underlying needs at this time. 
3. Read—If you’re quarantined or otherwise spending more time at home, this is an excellent opportunity to enrich your life through reading. 
4. Love—Love your family. Be kind to your neighbors. Encourage your coworkers. Reach out to your friends.
5. Worship—Most churches are finding creative ways to assemble through live stream venues or smaller gatherings. (Lancaster Baptist will be doing services via live broadcast at lbclive.tv. A schedule of the services is available here.) Although your church’s normal schedule or meeting location may be disrupted, make worship with your church family a priority. 
6. Continue—The local church is so much more than just an assembly (although it does include assembling). But even when assembly times are unusual, you can still participate as part of Christ’s local church body as you pray, serve, give, and reach out to others. 
7. Plant—A time like this is an opportunity to plant seeds. Just as many of us will plant seeds in a garden in the upcoming weeks, fully expecting a harvest later, so we can use this unusual season to plant seeds of prayer and kindness. Be sure you’re using this time to sow, because God will bless faithful labor for Him. 
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The Ordinances of Heaven
Job 38:33, “Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? An ordinance is an established law or rule.
Astronomer and mathematician, Johannes Kepler 1571-1630, verified that the sun and the planets are governed by scientific laws, or ordinances. Johannes Kepler was a devout Christian. Kepler believed that God created the universe as the Bible says He did.
Psalm 119: 90 & 91, “Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.”  All of the ordinances of the physical universe were established by God. The ordinances of heaven include: the revolution of the earth the planets, the solar system, the revolution of the galaxy, and gravity. These ordinances were not understood throughout the centuries until scientists verified the ordinances of the solar system.
Johannes Kepler, and other scientists, has verified that the universe and all biological life is based on scientific fact. Evolution is based on randomness not verifiable scientific fact.
Jeremiah 31: 35-37, “Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.”
God established the ordinances of heaven, the physical universe, in Genesis chapter 1. These ordinances will continue until He creates the new heaven and the new earth: Isaiah 66: 22; 2 Peter 3:10-13 and Revelation 21:1
 

With this disease spreading fast the Christian Law Association posted the following a week ago.

https://christianlaw.org/pray-for-healing-keep-fervently-sharing-the-gospel/

Mega churches are cancelling services to help stop the spread of the Coroana virus. Has anyone's church here done anything, and is there a panic in your church/community about all of this?

Me being outside NYC, everyone is in a panic. 

I enjoy taking photos of nature, whether scenery, insects, plants, animals, etc. I wanted to start a thread where anybody who wants can share a photo they took of something in nature.

 

Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

I would like to have a poll to see where those that went to Bible College went. Please choose all that you attended.

If I missed your school, shoot me a PM and I will add it. These are in no certain order.

Stats suggest that millennials are leaving “religion” in droves.  According to pewforum.org, only 28% of millennials attend church weekly, 38% a few times a year, and 34% never darken the door of a church each year.  In society millennials seem to get a bad reputation, but what is leading them to leave church?

One of the primary objectives of every generation of the church is to hand the faith and the church over to the next generation. Has the church failed in this objective? The Bible teaches this in Titus 2:4-5 "That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed".

So the question must be asked:  How does the church reach the next generation? Music and technology are probably the two most  things used to reach this generation. We're told that music must reflect the culture of the generation. A.W. Tozer says it best,  “Worship is no longer worship when it reflects the culture around us more than the Christ within us.” How the church wins people is how they have to keep them. 

What do millennials want? The same thing everyone is looking for. Our time. Our heart. Our attention, along with a chance to actually connect with people. That is one reason why small groups do well with Millennials. Relationship is something every church can be good at. Everyone at your church doesn't need to know everyone. But everyone needs to know someone.

While culture changes, God is the same yesterday, today and forever. We don't need to have our churches reflect entertainment and the culture to draw people to His church. Christ like love still draws people to Christ. 

Please let us know in your comments below why you feel our young people are leaving the church.

Sermon on Depression - Lighthouse Baptist Church: San Diego, California. I have had the privilege of hearing Pastor Doug Fisher preach on numerous occasions at The Summit at Solid Rock Baptist Church in Berlin, NJ. There has been many messages that he preached that has helped me as a pastor and issues that we were dealing with in our church.

 

It seems to be common problem where I am that Sunday morning is the biggest service by numbers, but no matter what your actual numbers are, Sunday evening is about half or less than Sunday morning, and Prayer meeting (Wednesday night for us) is about half again - so only about 25% of the morning service.

Thoughts people?

How can we (biblically of course) find a way to help people see the importance of the other services?

I struggle to understand it personally, because pretty much from the day I got saved I was in every service I could be. It just seemed to be what I should do, but that is apparently not "normal".......

(How surprising is that? I am not normal!!!!! 😂 )

This is from a discussion that came up in our church. We all have had to search for a church at one point in our life. Whether it is going on vacation and looking for a church, or simply just moving to a new location, we mostly had to do research and find a church that is of like faith. 

I know the first thing we do in this age is go on the internet and look  and maybe shoot an email to them, but sometimes church websites are so vague that you don't know the beliefs or style of the worship service, but my question for you is when you first walk into a church for the first time, what are some of the first things you look for?

 

For me the first thing I do is look and see if they have Bible pews, and if they do, I check to see what version they are. Not a fully telling sign, but its a start.

 

Let's start an encouraging thread as it seems that the negative many times is "louder" than the positive in our churches. What is your favorite thing about your local church, what do you love about it?

It is not hard to find the Bible repeatedly warning us about, “self deception”; And our flesh is so deceitful and desperately wicked, that we can and are often self deceived, even when we are “trying to do right”.  It happens all the time.  Our only hope for deliverance from self deception is Hebrews 4:12.

Well one of the chief ways that this happens with IFB’s, is in the are of “standards”.  I once asked a missionary to define “legalism” for me.  His response was, “A legalist is someone who has more standards than I do.”  His answer demonstrates just how dangerous standards can be.

Some of you, may not know the kinds of DANGERS, I am talking about.  But here is a big one.  “When a Christian starts lifting up standards, to guide his behavior, he stops listening to the Holy Spirit!”  In reality, the LORD wants us to be “led by the Spirit”, every waking moment of the day.  But when we start following standards(our own or someone elses), than we allow those STANDARDS, to overrule the Spirit’s leadership.

It is also a waste of time, to try and nail someone down to using strictly “Biblical standards”; Because “all standards” are man-made, because they are all based upon our present interpretation of what the Bible says.  This is true, unless you want to call those things that we are dogmatic about, “standards”.  Things like "the infallibility of God’s Word", should not be called a “standard”, because man’s opinion, has NOTHING to do with it.

 

Today many have no conception of Hell, Sheol in the Hebrew, or Hades , Tartarus, and Gehenna in the Greek language. It is a literal place where men are in the process of dying but never succumbing to death, subjected to incessant agony and physical torment. Churches need to unapologetically preach the clear truth about Hell. Christians need to be able to witness about Heaven to others, and plainly delineating about the horror of an authentic place called Hell. All men must come to terms with an actual place called Hell and the hope of eternity with Christ.
The book of Revelation tells us “He has the keys to Hell and death.” Life and death are in the power of His nail torn hands because His sacrificial death for our sins on the cross took away the power of death, giving us the gift of salvation and eternal life.
The following verse proves His deity over time; past, present and future, He is not bound or limited by time as man is. This verse plainly declares there is a literal heaven and likewise, or opposite, a literal hell.
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Revelation 1:18)
Hell has been described as being a place that:
· Man will have a memory that will NEVER fail.
· It is a place that EVERY request will be denied.

· It is a place of HATRED.
· It is a place located DOWNWARD, NOT UPWARDS towards eternity
· A place of Outer DARKNESS
· A PRISON in chains
· It is a place of UNQUENCHABLE THIRST, a thirst for spiritual things of Christ that can never be

quenched.
· It is a place of ever LONGING.
· It is a place of FIRE that is NEVER extinguished.
· A place where the worm DIETH NOT, sinners never die.
· A place of EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION.
· A place of NO REST day and night.
· A place of TORMENT day and night for eternity.

I ask this for your opinions, thoughts, and insights.

 

I sometimes post on another board and (hopefully its ok) I would like to link a thread that is going on over there. NOT so that we can all march over there and say "huzzah! you're wrong!" but rather I would like to have this discussion on here. I will probably be starting another thread I would like to get some more opinions on that is in tandem to this thread but worthy of a secondary set of thought patterns.

 

Without futher ado this is the link:
Click me! 

So the thread there is pretty simple: 

Apparently DBS is "Fractured" due to Riplingers divorces (although Dean burgeon has been a TR-Only group not  KJVO group but anyway)
Ruckman has passed away
Steven Anderson is a menace (which I don't disagree with)
Etc..

Do you see the KJB issue still in full force or not?
 

Let's start this thread to pray for each other on the Lord's Day. When reading this thread, pray for the church and pastor.

What church are you attending this week, and what's the pastor's name? 

I'll be at Highpoint Baptist Church, and the pastors name is Matt Souza (me 🙂 ).

Here's just a few heretical "quotes" that I've seen on the signs in front of some of the local Baptist churches in my area...
 
LIVE RIGHT,
OR YOU'LL BE LEFT!
 
 
THE ONLY THING THAT LASTS FOREVER IS GOD'S LOVE
 
 
DIRECTIONS TO HEAVEN:
TURN RIGHT, THEN GO STRAIGHT
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I'm curious to what everyone's thoughts are of the Bristol Revival that is currently going on by Evangelist CT Townsend. Is this something you would be a part of? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bek-2Dnrszg

Please pray for the church and college. The following was released from the school: It has come to our attention that allegations of inappropriate conduct have been made against Cameron Giovanelli, a member of our staff. Upon receipt of the notice of the allegations, we immediately placed him on administrative leave of all activities and responsibilities, to conduct a thorough and honest investigation. ..........

Many preachers teach that 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 teaches that the sign gifts will cease, the claim is that the "perfect" of vs 10 is the completed canon of scriptures. However I have a hard time seeing how the completed scriptures were what enable Paul to "know even as I also am known". I am beginning to wonder if this interpretation of this passage of scripture is a knee jerk reaction to charismatic doctrine and chaos? I see it as a definite possibility that what the "perfect" is and what Paul means by "then shall I know even as I also am known" as a reference to our condition in glory, or something of that nature. So I have several questions

1. Does the cessation of spiritual gifts hinge on 1 Corinthians 13:8-12? What other passages of the bible teach cessationism of the sign gifts?

2. Can we know with certainty based on Biblical exegesis that the "perfect" of vs 10 is the completed canon of scripture? or do we just say that because we have heard preachers teach that? 

This was the closest to an acceptable explanation that I could find about vs 12, but I still have trouble and feel like it glosses over the phrase "shall know even as also am known"

"The word translated as glass (esoptron esoptron) literally refers to 
a mirror. The ancients did not have the technology to make useful mirrors from glass. Rather, they were made from polished metal. Of course, the imagery thereon was not clear, but somewhat fuzzy. The word translated as darkly (ainigma ainigma) is whence the English word enigma derives. Here it has the sense of ‘not clearly,’ or as the Authorized Version renders it, darkly. The idea was of the obtuse imagery of ancient mirrors. The application was to the limited degree of spiritual understanding and knowledge present in the early church ab- sent the New Testament. 

If you could not find an IFB church in your area, what kind of Baptist churches would you never attend?   

Giving the Gospel / Are You Ashamed of Christ?

I had intended on writing a SHORT encouraging note to others about sharing the gospel.
That truly was my main intent prior to setting about to type some thoughts and copy corresponding scripture down...

But as often happens, the Lord put something else on my heart. 
I recently had a discussion with a fellow believer who admitted that he or she rarely shared the gospel with others.
Since the conversation was somewhat recent, it may be why the Lord put it on my heart, BUT I think it may well be that it wasn't this person (in particular) but someone else (unknown to me whom) and perhaps ALL of us that could benefit by serious consideration of the following 2 questions (and why the Lord put it on my heart to bring this forward HERE today, I am not sure, but felt compelled to do so).

The 2 questions I am asking each one of us to consider today are these:
#1. Do you share the gospel with others?
#2. Are you ashamed of Christ?

Most of us here (at least those whom I've come to know somewhat) would likely answer the questions with an emphatic "YES, I share the gospel", and "NO, I am not ashamed of the Lord".

Came across this, was a little confused. Can you guys explain this to me? Thanks! 

https://billmounce.com/monday-with-mounce/are-you-saved-or-are-you-being-saved”-1-cor-15-2 

http://www.simplybible.com/f066.htm

Let's start a discussion for those of you that went to Bible College. Here are a few questions for you to answer. Feel free to copy and paste with our answers.

What Bible College did you attend?


Did you graduate? What was your Major


What years did you attend?


What did you like best about the college?


What did you least like about the college?


Would you recommend that school now?


In your opinion, did the school properly train you for the ministry?



 

So as not to sidetrack the presidential thread, but picking up on a particular subject (plus, since he is not MY president my input to that thread should be minimal).

Climate change.......

I have a few opinions on various aspects of the subject.

First of all - the claims of climate change are based on the world's science.

This is the same "science" that tells us that over millions of years there have been several (at least two is what I remember being taught) ice ages, all of which occurred (according to their science) before man came upon the scene.

The question then must be asked: what caused these climate change events?

And a second question: If such climate events happened before man, then how can they attribute this so called event to man's influence?

Remember that I am talking in terms of their own science. Their own science indicates that such change happens without men, so they have no reason to assume that men have caused this one. 

 

Secondly, their science is based only on a short period of accurate measurements.

Santorio Santorio (1561-1636) invented the first "accurate" thermometer. 

Prior to this time there was no accurate temperature recordings, and in fact it was the 1700's (I think 1714) before a standard scale for temp was invented.

This means we only have 300years (approx) of recorded temperatures.

Remember that all other temps are worked our by scientists making certain assumptions that cannot be fully verified.

So we have three hundred years of temperature measurements with constantly improving accuracy.

But how can they possibly know from 300 years that this is a globally historic event?

Could this not be a normal temperature cycle that happens say every 600 years and has nothing to do with anything man has done?

There is no real way of knowing because only actually know with certainty that the temperatures have changed over the last 300 years.

And there are other reasonable explanations for those recorded changes.

 

Now, HAVING SAID ALL OF THAT, man was given the task of looking after the Earth in Genesis 2 and 3, and we should be doing our utmost not to mistreat the planet that God has supplied for us.

This should be the underlying motivation for any "environmentalism" and if it is, that will of course be tempered with the other commands of God, so it will not get out of hand.

We should look after this place because God told us to.

 

 

Just thought I would ask in the general sense - I know the standard IBF run down on the issue, and I don't particularly want a whole big argument going on, but maybe people could give their understanding of who has the authority to start a new church.

This is almost, if you will, a survey of PEOPLE's thoughts on the matter.

If you want to include some scripture to support that would be fine, but I am really looking for people's understanding, so even a general reference to the "the Bible says..." without a direct quote would be acceptable in this instance.

 

So the Question:

"Who has the authority to start a Biblical church?"

and secondarily, 

"what would be a short description of the process of starting a Biblical church".

Answer either or both, and anyone is welcome.

 

Thanks,

 

Dave.

Anderson isn't only hated by the world, but he is hated by the brethren. Why? IMO even if one disagrees with his stance on Israel or the rapture, you would have to see his love for the lost. What is the true measure of love? FWBC is winning like 100 per week, why would any christian want him to go away?