It's hard to believe that it is almost spring. It was over 50 degrees yesterday and I had the opportunity to sit on a rocking chair on the porch. Question: does the fact that I enjoy spending a few minutes on a rocking chair on my porch make me old? Well....
Since my last post there have been a lot of happenings. Through it all I can say that GOD HAS BEEN GOOD TO ME!
Sunday Feburary 27 was my last Sunday at the Barter's Island Baptist Church. We had a great day there. It was sad leaving, but it was time for me to come back home to Church Hill Baptist Church. Please continue to pray for Barter's Island Baptist Church as they are now deep into their search for their next pastor.
It has been great to get a chance to teach the adult Sunday School. I am teaching our way through the book of Ecclesiastes. God has been blessing through my study there. I have the opportunity to preach on Wednesday the 23rd of March. Pastor Wiley will be preaching at the Heartland Baptist Bible College on Tuesday the 22nd. Please pray for him as he pleads for more laborers. The Lord is laying a message on my heart right now and I must be sensitive to His will to "preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee" (Jonah 3:2).
Saturday morning soul-winning has been going on through the winter. Praise God for a small but faithful group that has labored through the cold and the unplowed streets. We have seen many souls saved through this ministry. I look forward to building the number of participants up to canvass the city of Augusta (a.k.a. our Jerusalem). As you go from apartment to apartment and house to house, you can't help but get a broken heart for the lost. There is also something very special in sharing the true Gospel of Jesus Christ in the shadow of the big Catholic stone idol (a.k.a. their "church" building). Open up the Kennebec Journal and view the obituaries any day of the week and you will see souls that have slipped into eternity. Many are Catholic and I wonder if they have ever heard a clear presentation of the gospel in their entire life. WE MUST REACH THEM BEFORE THEY ARE IN THAT SECTION OF THE PAPER, WHEN IT IS ETERNALLY TOO LATE.
Won't you pray that the Lord will give you boldness to witness to those He brings your way?
On a personal note, I continue to learn more about the Baptist preachers in my family tree. I have learned much about Nathaniel Jenkins. I had the pleasure of learning (on Saturday the 12th) about more Baptist preachers in the family. Frank D. Jones was a Baptist pastor of many churches in Maine in the mid 1800's. I have seen his name on a few websites. I am also related to the Callenders. This name is a very active name in the late 1600's and 1700's in New England. Ellis Callender was one of the first pastors of the First Baptist Church of Boston. He was a contemporary of William Screven who planted the first Baptist church in Maine before being kicked out of the district only to settle the first Baptist church in South Carolina. Brother Screvin actually wrote a letter to the First Baptist Church of Boston recommending Ellis Callender to be the next pastor. Ellis had a son named Elisha Callender who was also a pastor at the First Baptist Church of Boston. Ellis also had a nephew named John Callender who was a Baptist preacher in Rhode Island. John Callender chronicled much of the early history of the Baptists in Rhode Island. Do an internet search for Ellis, Elisha, or John Callender and you will get many links. I have not searched them all out yet. Time is precious but what an encouragement when I can steal away for a few moments to do this research. It fires my soul that I am going forth preaching the very same Gospel of Jesus Christ that my relatives preached. What a blessing.
That is all for now.
Please pray for laborers. Maybe it is you the Lord is talking to about witnessing more?
Friday, March 18, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Monday Feburary 21, 2011
What a great Lord's day we had yesterday! Barter's Island Baptist Church hosted Pastor Jeff Faggart and his family for the Sunday School, morning and afternoon services. The preaching stirred souls (including mine) as we learned more about our great heritage. Oh, that more children of God would understand about the great heritage they have. Why is our heritage so important? You may ask. We need to know where we came from to fully understand what we are now. Also, we look back and see what great things God has done with the understanding that HE CAN DO IT AGAIN!!!!! (Wow, makes me wanna preach again!!!!)
In the evening I had the pleasure of preaching at my home church, Church Hill Baptist Church. What a blessing it was to preach to my church family. The love they show me and my family is very touching. I preached out of Jeremiah 20 the message "He just couldn't keep his mouth shut!".
I'm looking forward to seeing what the Lord is going to do this week. Normally by now I would be on stop 3 on my bread route, but I am going to go out tomorrow when the weather isn't slippery and when I have had a chance to sleep earlier. I look forward to spending the afternoon with the Jones', the Wileys', and the Faggarts'. I do not deserve all the Lord has done for me.
In the evening I had the pleasure of preaching at my home church, Church Hill Baptist Church. What a blessing it was to preach to my church family. The love they show me and my family is very touching. I preached out of Jeremiah 20 the message "He just couldn't keep his mouth shut!".
I'm looking forward to seeing what the Lord is going to do this week. Normally by now I would be on stop 3 on my bread route, but I am going to go out tomorrow when the weather isn't slippery and when I have had a chance to sleep earlier. I look forward to spending the afternoon with the Jones', the Wileys', and the Faggarts'. I do not deserve all the Lord has done for me.
Meetinghouse at Cape May, New Jersey
Here (bottom) is a picture of the original meetinghouse built by the Baptists at Cape May, New Jersey under the leadership of Pastor Nathaniel Jenkins. This building was constructed in 1715. The current meetinghouse is pictured at the top.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Nathaniel Jenkins presentation
Ashley and Kayla presenting the ministry of their great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather Nathaniel Jenkins.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Baptist Heroes: John Corbly
I have done some study today on the life of Baptist Preacher John Corbly. John Corbly was a man who endured the agony of finding his family brutally maimed and murdered at the hands of a band of indians. Here is the transcript of a letter that Corbly wrote after the incident:
“The following are the particulars of the destruction of my unfortunate family by the savages on the 10th day of May last 1791. Being my appointment to preach at one of the meeting-houses about a mile from my dwelling house, I set out with my loving wife and five children for public worship, not suspecting any danger. I walked behind a few rods with my bible in my hand meditating. As I was thus employed on a sudden I was greatly alarmed by the frightful shriks of my dear family before me. I immediately ran to their relief with all possible speed vainly hunting a club as I ran. When within a few yards of them my poor wife observing me cried out to me to make my escape. At this instant an Indian ran up to shoot me. I had to strip and by so doing out ran him. My wife had an infant in her arms which the Indians killed and scalped after which they struck my wife several times but not bringing her to the ground. The Indians who attempted to shoot me approached her and shot her through the body after which they scalped her. My little son about six years old they dispatched by sinking there hatchet into his brain. My little daughter four years old they in like manner tomahawked and scalped. My elder daughter attempted an escape by concealing her self in a hollow tree about six rods from the fatal scene of action. Observing the Indians retiring, as she supposed, she deliberately crept out from the place of her concealment when one of the Indians who yet remained on the ground espying her ran up to her and with his tomahawk knocked her down and scalped her. But blessed be God she yet survives as dose here little sister whom the savages in like manner tomahawked and scalped. They are mangled to a shocking degree but the doctors think there are some hope of their recovery. When I supposed the Indians gone I returned to see what had become of my unfortunate family whom also I found in the situation above described. No one my dear friend can form a true conception of my feelings at this moment. A view of a crime so shocking to humanity quite over come me. I fainted and was unconsciously boarn off by a friend who at that moment arrived to my relief. Thus my dear Sir I have given you a faithful though short narrative of the fatal castraphe amidst which my life is spared but for what purpose The Great Jehovah best knows. Oh may I spend it to the praise and glory of his grace who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. The government of the world and its church are in his hands. I conclude with wishing you every blessing and subscribe myself your affectionate though afflicted friend and unworthy brother in the gospel ministry. John Corbly. “
John Corbly continued to preach the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ until his "graduation" in 1805. Despite enduring unimaginable grief John Corbly was faithful to God. He was a man that would heed the charge given Joshua in Joshua 1:9 to "be of a good courage". Oh, that we would have more John Corblys' in this day and age! I praise the Lord for this faithful man of God!
“The following are the particulars of the destruction of my unfortunate family by the savages on the 10th day of May last 1791. Being my appointment to preach at one of the meeting-houses about a mile from my dwelling house, I set out with my loving wife and five children for public worship, not suspecting any danger. I walked behind a few rods with my bible in my hand meditating. As I was thus employed on a sudden I was greatly alarmed by the frightful shriks of my dear family before me. I immediately ran to their relief with all possible speed vainly hunting a club as I ran. When within a few yards of them my poor wife observing me cried out to me to make my escape. At this instant an Indian ran up to shoot me. I had to strip and by so doing out ran him. My wife had an infant in her arms which the Indians killed and scalped after which they struck my wife several times but not bringing her to the ground. The Indians who attempted to shoot me approached her and shot her through the body after which they scalped her. My little son about six years old they dispatched by sinking there hatchet into his brain. My little daughter four years old they in like manner tomahawked and scalped. My elder daughter attempted an escape by concealing her self in a hollow tree about six rods from the fatal scene of action. Observing the Indians retiring, as she supposed, she deliberately crept out from the place of her concealment when one of the Indians who yet remained on the ground espying her ran up to her and with his tomahawk knocked her down and scalped her. But blessed be God she yet survives as dose here little sister whom the savages in like manner tomahawked and scalped. They are mangled to a shocking degree but the doctors think there are some hope of their recovery. When I supposed the Indians gone I returned to see what had become of my unfortunate family whom also I found in the situation above described. No one my dear friend can form a true conception of my feelings at this moment. A view of a crime so shocking to humanity quite over come me. I fainted and was unconsciously boarn off by a friend who at that moment arrived to my relief. Thus my dear Sir I have given you a faithful though short narrative of the fatal castraphe amidst which my life is spared but for what purpose The Great Jehovah best knows. Oh may I spend it to the praise and glory of his grace who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. The government of the world and its church are in his hands. I conclude with wishing you every blessing and subscribe myself your affectionate though afflicted friend and unworthy brother in the gospel ministry. John Corbly. “
John Corbly continued to preach the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ until his "graduation" in 1805. Despite enduring unimaginable grief John Corbly was faithful to God. He was a man that would heed the charge given Joshua in Joshua 1:9 to "be of a good courage". Oh, that we would have more John Corblys' in this day and age! I praise the Lord for this faithful man of God!