Shreve City Baptist Church

Watching my words,
Bro. Gene

With God all promises are kept. God says He will be with you and He means it. We need to remember, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” But Jesus said, ”I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly,” (John 10;10)

The Holy Spirit is God… that means the promise is being kept. Jesus said, “I’ll be with you always” and He meant it. Sometimes life is far more difficult than we are able to deal with. But there is never a time when the Holly Spirit can’t take care of us.

I wish I could say that I always remember this, but often times my humanity stops short of the reality of His promise. I trust Him because He is trustworthy. He has proved this over and over.

So what is the answer to this dilemma? To trust Him with all our ability, knowing that He is with us in all of our situations.

Thank you for your prayers, and your words of encouragement. That is what makes a church family so great. We must never lose sight of the fact that we are God’s family on earth. Our lives are to be examples for those who are without God.

Praising Him for His Presence,

Bro. Gene

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

Bro. Gene is still having problems with his eyes. He asked that I thank you for all the prayers you have prayed for his eyesight and he also asked for your continued prayers. His eyes are healing but not as quickly as he would like. He has started on a stronger steroid eye drop medication which causes great discomfort when being administered. Please continue to pray for complete healing of his eyes so he can continue to read the Word of God and preach the Gospel.

I just finished watching Billy Graham’s funeral. It was beautiful. His children talked about what a man of God he was. Franklin said that the Billy Graham we saw in the pulpit was the same Billy Graham they saw at home. Ann, his daughter, promised her dad she would continue to preach the Gospel. Ruth, another daughter, told of how she had not listened to her families’ advice and married a man whom they didn’t approve. She said as she was driving home after leaving this man, she was wondering how the family would accept her. Would they be disappointed in her? She said as she drove up the drive Billy was standing there. He met her, hugged her and told her, “Welcome home.” Ruth said he gave her unconditional love. Ann also said after Billy’s health failed, she would read the Bible to him. Billy Graham loved the Word of God. He believed it, preached it, and lived by it.

Dear God,

Help us to be a better servant for you. Help us to get our hearts right. Help us to have pure hearts. Give us the desire to live according to your standards for our lives. Give us the strength and courage to stand up for our Christian beliefs and to be a positive witness for Christ. Burden our hearts for the lost. May we never pass up an opportunity to tell the gospel to those who need You as Lord and Savior. And thank You for sending Billy Graham into the world during our lifetime. It is amazing to see how much You used him to spread the Gospel around the world. In Jesus name. Amen

Ann

And God spake all these words, saying,

I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me:

Exodus 20:1-5

The words God spoke to Moses in his day are the same words God is speaking to us today. While the people in the days of Moses were held in bondage physically, today people are held in bondage due to sin. But JESUS came to deliver us out of bondage.

We need to realize that God is not a God that will share His deity with any other gods. We have choices to make daily and many times we choose other things over God. It is so easy to forget the time of bondage and our desires take control of our actions.

In Egypt, the bondage was harsh. The sin bondage is very harsh also. In fact, many people are never delivered from it and perish in bondage. Unlike the deliverance from Egypt, God gives us a choice. We can accept the deliverance offered by Jesus, or continue to be held in bondage by sin. Some of the people who were physically delivered from Egypt complained and wished they were still in Egypt. Many who are delivered from sin by the blood of Jesus cannot stay away from the gods of pleasure that sin offers.

It comes down to this. We are either a member of the family of God or we are not. We cannot have a part-time God, in Jesus.

He is our Lord and Savior or He is not. We need to examine our loyalty to God. Do we trust Him completely and follow only Him?

Or are we guilty of dividing our loyalty?

Revival means turning around and heading the way we need to go. The message is the same, who will you choose Jesus or worldly gods?

Praying for revival,

Bro. Gene

 Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.² Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? who can shew forth all his praise? ³ Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times.                           Psalm 106:1-3

In the first few verses of this Psalm, the writer expresses what all of us, who belong to Sod, can have. The reason we need not fear the coming year is because God is in complete control, “…his mercy endureth forever.” No one or nothing can alter the mighty acts of God.

Rather than being fearful of the year to come, we can begin to draw closer to Him and experience His unchanging love. When we begin to study His Word with purpose and pray with determination, we draw closer to God and we realize now the words of the Psalmist are true and to the point.

As we look forward to 2018, let’s do so with much expectation of what a merciful God can do. 2018 has the possibility of being our best year ever if God is in the center of it. As a church, the closer we draw to God the more we will see His mighty hand showing forth His love.

I believe this will be the greatest year ever because we lave chosen to make God the focal point of our ministry. As we trusted Jesus, God’s Son, for salvation so we can trust Him for all our life’s needs.

Expecting Great Things, Bro. Gene

“Unselfish Love”

John 15:13 KJV
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

I feel a sense of honor at being asked to pray at the Memorial Day Services at the Northwest Louisiana Veterans Cemetery. As I looked at the little flags placed carefully on each grave, I thought about what Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” God exemplified what it meant to love by giving His Only Son, Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins. Because of His love for mankind, Jesus laid His life down for all who would believe, both present and future.

These men and women who gave their lives unselfishly must never be forgotten. We must never change God’s principals of love. Freedom can only come through sacrifice. The freedom we have now came because we had people who cared enough about religious freedom that they would fight to the end to defend it! Do we honor these individuals? Most important, do we honor our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who loved us enough to die for us and our freedom from sin?

My heart was once again renewed as I silently prayed for the families who had lost loved ones in one of many of our wars against freedom. Please show respect for all our veterans and their families. Not just on one special day, but every day. Moreover, let us always show respect, honor and love to our precious Lord Jesus Christ, who has set us free from sin.

Respectfully,

Bro. Gene

For we are saved by hope:  but hope that is seen is not hope:  for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Romans 8:2-25

We have the hope of a future with Jesus in Heaven.  Is it really hope?  If we believe god’s Word, then Hope becomes reality.  The Trust we have in a God we have not seen is Faith. (Hebrews 11:1. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”)  Faith is substance because the Holy Spirit of God resides in us and testifies to our spirit of God’s Hope.

The reality of salvation is found in scripture written under God’s inspiration. Genesis 1:1 is our start in Faith (“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”). If we can believe Genesis 1:1 we can believe everything else.  The Gospel says Jesus was the virgin-born Son of God, conceived of the Holy Spirit.  It says Jesus lived a sinless life.  He took our sins to the cross and lay in a grave for three days.  But on the third day, He arose out of that tomb, conquering death,  hell, and the grave.  In doing that, He was able to bring all those who believe in Him Victory (Hope).

Jesus must be first, others next, then yourself last. We will then have JOY

Joyful in Faith,

Bro. Gene