July Update

Wow! I guess it's been a long time since I have updated this blog. It has been a great couple of months. The Lord has blessed and my family and I have been having a great time. Here are some of the highlights: We had a Sunday afternoon service at the old East Bethel Meetinghouse on June 24. It was a very good meeting and the Lord blessed. It was powerful to meet in that old Baptist meetinghouse. Many "visitors" were there and they heard the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ preached. That following Tuesday night we loaded up the van and travelled to Bridgton for an old fashioned tent meeting with the New Heights Baptist Church. It was a great time and it was exciting to bring a full van load to be there. July 4 we had a morning service followed by a cookout. The Lord blessed the morning as tried something new with this morning service. In the evening we travelled to Church Hill Baptist where I had the opportunity to preach. What a great service that was! Both my church family at Bryant Pond and my church family at Church Hill spoiled my family as it was Paula and mine 17th anniversary. What a blessing to have such great people around us. The generosity is amazing. On July 8 we hosted missionary church planter Phillip Brown and family (minus the children) and he preached and presented for us. What a great work the Lord will do with them in Bozeman, Montana. On July 21 we marched in the parade for the Mollyockett Days festival in Bethel. WE passed out 500 bags of candy with gospel tracts and VBS invites. Next year we will prepare ove 3,000. We ran out early. Not again! The absolute highlight of the last two months is a lady by the name of Thelma. Thelma trusted Christ as her Saviour on Saturday the 21st of July. What a joy it is to see the Lord still in the saving sinners business! (shouting fit here Wooooooooooo Hooooooooooo!) Now we prepare for our annual VBS. "Let's Celebrate" is our theme and we run from August 6-10 from 6-8pm. Please pray that we have a good turnout and most importantly, that the Lord will save souls through this ministry. We thank you all for your prayers. The Lord is stirring here in Bryant Pond, we praise His name!

Powerful 300th Service!

We had a very powerful service marking the 300th anniversary of the First Baptist Church of Cape May Courthouse. God moved and the people were heavily encouraged. Praise God for how He can break through despite the shortcomings of the preacher. Please pray for this church. They have been looking for a pastor for over 3 years.

PastorMatthewJones' photostream

PastorMatthewJones' photostream on Flickr.

Pictures from my trip to visit the churches that my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather, Nathaniel Jenkins preached at. This will include First Baptist Church of Cape May Courthouse, NJ where they are celebrating 300 years.

We Will!

We will be having a service at the old East Bethel Meetinghouse on Sunday June 24 at 2pm. This is a facility that was used only one time last year for a service. Will the Lord prosper this meeting? I do not want to limit "the Holy One of Israel" (Psalm 78:41) We will approach this trusting God and saying "He can". Praise God for the advancement of the Gospel!

North Paris Baptist Church

As it looked in 1904 and now today. The church now exists as the North Paris Federated Church. This is another part of our local Baptist history.

Will we.....

These two meeinghouses are both on the Intervale Road in Bethel. The one with the steeple is the Middle Intervale meetinghouse, built in 1816. The other is the East Bethel meetinghouse, built in 1830. They are both Baptist meetinghouses and they are both in great condition and they are both sitting empty. I have contacted the Bethel Historical Society about possibly holding religious meetings in one of these meetinghouses. Pray that God's will be done.

Baptist History Tour 2012

All I can say is Wow! What a week. I had the opportunity to meet many new friends, fellow laborers for the cause of Christ. I had the opportunity to learn more about the Baptist history in the state of Maine than I ever thought possible. I had the opportunity to have my soul stirred. Here are the thoughts that are currently running through my head (in no specific order) If Isaac Case would walk from Massachusets to Maine in January (cold enough to cross the Kennebec river on the ice)just to follow the leading of the Lord, what am I doing? I mean what am I truly doing? I have this blog, I have email, twitter, facebook, cars, planes, trains...... what am I doing? Elder Case is credited with helping plant over 300 churches in our region of the world, back in the days where you walked or rode a horse through the woods. What kind of devotion is that which would spur a man to such lengths to see the lost saved? Why am I not doing more? If Daniel Merrill were willing to literally lose everything which he had worked for, (the biggest church in Maine, the love and adoration of his town, the security of his family), simply for doctrine, why am I sometimes hesitant to speak up when these issues are brought up? Elder Merrill studied the Scriptures and found that he must be a Baptist, for that is what the Bible teaches. Did he keep his new-found knowledge to himself? Not hardly. He preached a seven message series on Scriptural Baptism and, himself submitted to believers immersion, as the Scriptures command. For his bravery, the Lord allowed 65 others to follow, constituting the First Baptist Church of Sedgewick, Maine in 1805. His risk was for doctrine.... Where is that devotion to docrine today? Why is it that there is an increasingly bigger crowd advising to stretch grace to it's limits and decide "what doctrines we can live without"? If George Dana Boardman was willing to say goodbye to his family until they would meet again in heaven, to see the people of Burma receive the gospel, why are we sometimes unwilling to simply spend a few hours knockng on doors in our own community? If Adoniram Judson was willing to stay committed to the Lord's work in Burma despite burying two wives and six children on that foreign shore, why do we experience some minor financial setback and act like it's the end of the world? These men all endured afflictions as good soldiers of Christ. We have no idea what kind of suffering these men went through to proclaim the gospel of Christ. I must ask myself, as well as all others in the service of the Lord, is there a price that is too high to pay to serve the same God that gave us eternal life? This week has challenged me in ways I thought not possible. Servants of God, Baptist brethren, we must carry on with all we have. Will there be trials, yes. Will there be difficulties, yes. Serve God! Serve God! Serve God! With all we have! I cannot begin to list the great people I had opportunity to fellowship with this week! I laughed, I cried, I shouted! Now it's time to get to work...