I Love the Christmas Season

It has been a long time since I have written in this blog. In the future, I hope to do so more frequently.

It is the Christmas season, the time of year that I love. During my childhood, my father made a big deal of Christmas. Although he was not a Christian (He did trust in the Savior on his death bed), he seemed to love giving on Christmas. His generosity taught me something about God. From my father, I learned the tremendous joy of giving to children.

It will be the wonderful privilege of the International Baptist Fellowship (IBF) to give gifts to our children. Mostly, the children of the IBF are needy children. I hope to see their eyes shine with excitement and happiness when they are presented with their gifts on the day of the IBF Christmas. I think that our Savior will also be smiling.

The Song of David

The picture above is found in The Bible and its Story, Volume 4 It is a representation of Benaiah the man that saved David from his son Adonijah and Joab. In “The Song of David,” David thanks God for teaching him to war and for protecting him when his enemies were to much for him. He praises God for giving him great victories and for being kind to him. David implies that God protected and gave him victory because of his desire for Him (God). David sinned regularly, but the desire of his life was to follow the way of God. David even states that God put His desires in his heart so that David would follow His ways. What an awesome God we serve. He puts His desires into our hearts and then He empowers us to do those desires.

God has put the intense desire in my heart to be a great commission blessings to the global communities of the world. It is an all consuming desire, and, since it is God who has put that desire there, I expect that He will train me to be that blessing.

It is time to leave for our Sunday morning Bible study. I wonder what God will do for us today?

My laptop decided to go on vacation today. Not good, since I have my sermon notes on it. Oh, well, I will need to make my sermon the old fashioned way, on paper. This computer (the one I am using) is not as convenient because it doesn’t have by Bible software on it.

Tomorrow is Easter. I am praying that God will bring some of our family that have drifted way back tomorrow.

I woke up at 4:00 AM this morning which is about two earlier than normal. But the Lord gave me a good time in His Word, and I have an excellent jump on the day. On my schedule are all the normal administrative items plus a Bible study with Jay, and a moving adventure this evening.

A group of young men from Trinity Baptist Church will be helping me clear out our basement and moving the furniture over to the basement of Evangelical Baptist Church. This will allow Deb and I to begin work on the basement, making more room for ministry and family.

I have need to get some grading done on my on-line teaching course, and also some sermon work done today.

All in all, another blessed day of serving the Lord.

Here I am again at my Starbucks office in Concord, NH. Linda will graduate from High School in two months—then life will change. I have many friends here at Starbucks. Many of these are Christians. Gary has become a good friend. I think that we will probably remain friends when my Concord days are over. Mark is another friend with whom I share a cup of coffee with occasionally. He is a church consultant and has been filling me in on ways in which I can use web based communications. I am very interested in this for obvious reasons. Ministering to the global community will necessitate the ability to globally communicate. I am praying that God help me become a proficient global communicator.

Pastor E