Who Needs You?

One of the best pictures of intercessory prayer is found in the historical account of a battle between the nation of Israel and the Amalekites in Exodus 17.  In this battle, the victory hinged on God working through the steadfastness of Moses' prayers.

Read this...

     While the people of Israel were still at Rephidim, the warriors of Amalek attacked them.Moses commanded Joshua, “Choose some men to go out and fight the army of Amalek for us. Tomorrow, I will stand at the top of the hill, holding the staff of God in my hand.”  

     So Joshua did what Moses had commanded and fought the army of Amalek. Meanwhile, Moses, Aaron, and Hur climbed to the top of a nearby hill.As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage.Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on. Then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands. So his hands held steady until sunset.As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle.  (Exodus 17:8–13 NLT)

So here are the questions I believe the Holy Spirit impressed on my heart this morning as I studied this passage:

• Who is counting on me to pray?
• Are there people in the battle of life that are struggling at least in part because I have not been faithful to pray for them as I should? (Or maybe a gentler way to ask the question would be:  Are there people in whose life God would be doing a greater work if I were more faithful to pray?)
• How faithful am I in praying for others?
• Who should I be praying for that I have not been praying for?

Everyone is a Moses to someone.  Who is counting on you?

Pastor Noel

Essential 100 Bible Challenge

We are throwing the Bible reading assignments up each day on the Event Facebook Page.

I would also suggest going to YouVersion to follow along with the plan.

It has been great to hear from so many people who are joining us for this. We've had people sign up at the church, via email, and on the Facebook page. We've hard stories of families doing this together... Offices doing this together and even churches that have decided to join us. Because of your faithfulness to invite your friends, we have literally hundreds and hundreds committed to reading their Bibles daily for these 100 days!

Thanks for being a part of this!

Pastor Noel

E100 For Wednesday, January 5

OK... The assignment for tomorrow (1.5) is Genesis 1-2. I would love to see us get a discussion going on the Facebook page through the day tomorrow. So here are three questions I want to throw out for you to think about as you read and maybe comment on...

1. What does it mean that we are made in God's Image? How should that affect how we live?

2. What does it mean that God created men and women to compliment one another? In what ways is your life blessed because of this complimentary creation? Why is it good that men and women have different approaches, temperaments, strengths?

3. What things do these two chapter remind us that we should thank the Lord for?

Pastor Noel

Essential 100 Bible Challenge Begins In 24 Hours!

We all begin tomorrow morning. Here are some questions to answer to know if you are ready...

• Do you have a list of verses to read each day? We will post them on the Facebook Event Page each night for the next day, but you can also email us at e100@fbcho.com for the entire verse list or stop by the church for paper copies and bookmarks we've made with all... of the assignments listed.

• Have you invited all of your friends and family? What better way to encourage those around you in their walk with the Lord!

• Do you have an easy to read Bible? I, pastor Noel, and going to do my reading from an NLT Bible. Any translation will work as long as you have one you can easily understand.

• Do you want the accompanying devotional book? It isn't necessary but might help you better understand what you are reading. We have them here at the church if you can come by. Read the blog post below for more info about the books.

Pastor Noel

Essential 100 Bible Challenge

Tomorrow (1.2.2011), we will introduce our church to the Essential 100 Day Challenge. If you haven't heard the message, you can do so online. We will post it to our website and to iTunes on Monday. We will post a link to it here when available.

Here is the FAQ that will help you get started...

Essential 100 Day Challenge FAQ

When will the Essential 100 Day Challenge Begin?

• Wednesday (1.5.2011) -- Why Wednesday? We want you to have a couple days to invite your friends to join you in this life changing challenge.

How to Be A Part of the Essential 100 Day Challenge?

• · Complete an E100 Commitment Card or if you are reading this online, send us a quick email with your name and address to e100@fbcho.com.

• · Make sure you have an E100 Scripture List. Lists are available at church or by requesting one at the email address: e100@fbcho.cm.

How can I interact with others who are doing the E100 Challenge?

• · Visit our Facebook Event Page to share your insights and be encouraged by others who have joined you in this challenge. You can reach the link from the church website (www.FirstBaptistHeath.com) or the pastor's blog (PastorDear.blogspot.com).

Can I do this online or with my mobile device?

• · Yes. Go to the YouVersion Website or access your YouVersion App and search for the "Essential 100" reading plan.

How can I encourage others to be a part of this?

• · Invite your Facebook friends by going to the Event Page and clicking 'Invite'.

• · Call friends and family and ask them if they would do this with you for the next 100 days.

Is there a resource to help me understand what I am reading?

• · Yes. The book is titled, "The Essential Bible Guide: 100 Readings Through The World's Most Important Book" by Whitney Kuniholm. This book is not required, but it does give helpful insights into each day's reading.

• · The book is available at the church for $10.00 (cash, check, credit card).

• · The book is also available at Amazon ($10.96).

• · The book is also available on the Kindle ($9.29) and Nook ($9.99) electronic platforms.

Pastor Noel

One Hundred Day Bible Reading Challenge

I am very excited about something we will be sharing with everyone this Sunday. Watch this space for more information. The challenge officially begins on Wednesday, January 5.

You can visit our Facebook Event page here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=172475932791635.

Pastor Noel

Upcoming PM Series

Joseph Group

This morning is the first day of our new men's Connect Group for the summer semester. I'm really looking forward to it. As I was studying yesterday and preparing for how we would begin, I realized that almost every issue or struggle that men deal with is dealt with somewhere in the story of Joseph. Thirteen chapters in the book of Genesis... More than almost anyone else in the Bible... Joseph is a man every Christian man should study closely.

By the way, we had a pretty good day Sunday. Good crowd in worship despite the first really good weather day in a while.

Well, I had a good devotional time today. Time to get ready to head out...

Pastor Noel

Upcoming Week

It is going to be a busy week but I had a refreshing time with the Lord this morning so I am ready...

This morning is the Heartbeats Golf Tournament. That is an annual event where we try to raise a little money for Heartbeats, a great organization that helps women in crisis situations, and have a little fun as well. Looks like it is going to rain all morning, so I don't know what that is going to do to the schedule.

I will be preaching a funeral at 1:00 p.m. today. The funeral is for someone I never met. These kinds of funerals can be difficult. Pray that I will have wisdom.

A couple of meetings this afternoon, and I hope to get a little bit of a jump on message prep this week since we are starting a new PM series.

Here is what I'm praying for this week...

... Some decisions about construction plans for preschool facility...
... Connect Ministry: The new semester begins Sunday...
... PM Series. I'll blog more on this tomorrow.
... Youth Ministry: Troy and I will be working together this week...
... New Member Class on Wednesday night...

Pastor Noel

Have you Struggled in Prayer?

Quick note from something I learned in my quiet time this morning...

Have you struggled in prayer? I don't mean, 'have you struggled to pray' or 'have you struggled to remember to pray' or even 'have you struggled to make time to pray'. I mean have you struggled for someone or something in prayer?

This morning I was reading in Colossians and I came across this verse...

Colossians 2:1 (NLT)
I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other believers who have never met me personally.

I thought, 'Agonized how?'. When you continue to read and study, you learn that the chief way he agonized for them was in prayer.

Later in the same book, I read this verse...

Colossians 4:12 (NKJV)
12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

So in these verses, we see Paul agonizing for the Colossians in prayer, and we see Epaphras laboring fervently for them in prayer.

The questions then are... When was the last time I agonized or labored fervently for someone one in prayer? Are my prayers simply reciting a list of concerns? Are there new things I need to learn about prayer?

Pastor Noel

Letter to the Church...

Below is an email I sent to our church members for whom we have an email address on record...

--------------

Dear Church Family,

I'm in my church study preparing for our weekly staff meeting, and I thought I would send out a quick email to the church and share some good news...

First, I just received an email from a lady in our church that felt convicted to go and share Christ with her 95-year-old, Jehovah's Witness aunt. She took her notes from my sermon on the myth "Dead People Go To A Better Place". Her aunt repented of her sins and professed her faith in Christ. Wow!

Some more good news...

Sunday, September 27, was the first day in our new Connect Ministry semester. We had a record attendance of 419 people for the first week! We were up in every age category we measure. We were very grateful for that incredible number but had braced for the number to drop for week two. Guess what... it didn't drop... it went up! When all of the numbers are in, it looks like the total will be between 440 and 450 in small group attendance.

Tomorrow (10/7) I will begin to focus on 1 & 2 Timothy in my daily quiet time videos. If you would like a little help and accountability with your quiet times, check out MyMornings.blogspot.com to see my daily videos. There is an introductory video you can view here and then just join in with the others who are sharing together in our devotions each morning.

This coming Sunday morning I will be continuing my series on "Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe." We will be focusing on the myth: God Forgets All Our Sins. I am looking forward to the day of worship. I hope you will be here with us.

Pastor Wally, Pastor Shawn, Scott, and I will be meeting early tomorrow morning, as we do each Wednesday, to specifically pray for our church members and our community. If you send an email to info@fbcho.com before 6:00 a.m. tomorrow, I promise we will pray especially for you and your need when we gather together.

Pastor Noel

Thoughts on Last Sunday and the Next...

This past Sunday was a great Sunday of worship...

• We had a great crowd... both on the main floor and in the balcony! (In fact we had some families that had a difficult time finding seats together. I want to remind our regular worship attenders to sit as close to the front as you can get and to scoot to the center of the row you are sitting on. That will help us make things easier and more comfortable for our guests each week.)

• We began the service with baptisms which has become an almost weekly occurrence. I pray this will always be true, and I pray that we never get 'used to it'. We should always marvel at the grace of God that changes lives.

• We had a very good response during our invitation... a number of people and families praying at the altar. We had one young adult lady make a profession of faith and three youth make public that they had made professions of faith over the weekend.

• Sunday night was a blast. We had a real wedding in our evening worship service... Sound strange? It was great! We had a young couple come into our church a few weeks ago. They made a profession of faith and began to allow the grace of God to change their lives. One of the things they wanted to do was to get married and re-start their family the right way. They didn't have the resources to have a wedding so we decided we would just make it a part of our worship service and celebrate the grace of God... How God's grace was changing them and how God's grace is changing all of us. So we had a wedding, a sermon, and a couple of baptisms... Then we had a giant reception. I was so proud of how our church came out to celebrate with the young couple and how they blessed them with money and gifts at the reception... Wow! What a great example of the love of Christ.

This next Sunday is going to be fun as well...

• Our new semester of Connect Groups begins Sunday. We are hoping for a record attendance and involvement in our Connect Ministry beginning this week. If you haven't signed up for a group, there is still a few days left. Go to our website, fill out the form, and choose your group. Some of the groups are closed now, but we will do our best to get you in the group you choose.

• This week we will be continuing our series of messages on 'Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe.' This weeks myth is... God Helps Those Who Help Themselves. We will be in Genesis 16.

• Pastor Wally just let me know we have two more baptisms schedule for this Sunday morning!
  

A quick note on our daily Quiet Time encouragements. If you sometimes struggle with having a daily devotional time, take a look at our daily QT Encouragement blog... MyMornings.blogspot.com.

Pastor Noel

Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe

There are two things on my mind this morning as I do a little studying and praying about what is on the horizon at First Baptist Church of Heath…

First, I am looking forward to our new message series that begins this Sunday. After spending six weeks focusing on just two chapters in the Book of Revelation, now we are going to skip around the Bible for the next six weeks. I am borrowing this series title from a Larry Osborne book I read a while back. As soon as I saw the book title, I thought this would make a great message series if the Lord gave me liberty to preach it. So the title of our upcoming series is “Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe”. Larry, in his book, identifies ten of these dumb things. In my message series, I plan to address six. Three of mine are similar to his; three are different. Here is my list…


Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe
• Myth #1: Your Conscience Should Be Your Guide (9/13)

• Myth #2: Dead People Go To A Better Place (9/20)

• Myth #3: God Helps Those Who Help Themselves (9/27)

• Myth #4: God Forgets All Our Sins (10/4)

• Myth #5: God Has A Blueprint For My Life (10/11)

• Myth #6: All Things Work Together For Your Good (10/18)

Invite your friends, family, and co-workers. Let’s see how God’s Word can encourage us as we learn the truth about these myths.

Second, I have received much positive feedback from our on-line quiet time encouragement videos. Tomorrow (9/8) I will begin to focus on the Gospel of John. If you would like to join me for these quiet times for a few weeks, this would be a good place to start.

The best way to begin is to watch the video I made on how to have a quiet time. Then just jump in with the rest of us tomorrow morning!

For the introduction video, click here.

For the daily quiet time videos, click here.

Invite your friends, family, and co-workers to join in. The website is MyMornings.Blogspot.com.

Pastor Noel

My Mornings...

Check out my new post at my other blog... MyMornings.blogspot.com

Pastor Noel

My Mornings...

Check out my new post at my other blog... MyMornings.blogspot.com

Pastor Noel

My Mornings...

Check out my new post at my other blog... MyMornings.blogspot.com

Pastor Noel

My Mornings...

Check out my new post at my other blog... MyMornings.blogspot.com

Pastor Noel

My Mornings...

Check out my new post at my other blog... MyMornings.blogspot.com

Pastor Noel

My Mornings...

Check out my new post at my other blog... MyMornings.blogspot.com

Pastor Noel

My Mornings...

Check out my new post at my other blog... MyMornings.blogspot.com

Pastor Noel