Lord, establish my thoughts!

Proverbs 16:3 "Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established."
What a wonderful verse that is to me! I am a person whose thoughts are frequently scattered (just ask my wife who has lived with me for 15 years). Sometimes they come at me at a million miles per hour and I lose track of them. It tends to make me "absent minded" sometimes. I call it the "ping pong ball theory". Bits of information are like ping pong balls. My head is only big enough for so many ping pong balls. Sometimes one new thought may push another thought right out. My thoughts are scattered.
It is not so with the LORD! He will establish your thoughts if you commit your works to Him. I am going through a season where my thoughts are very heavy on me. There are many things on my mind that are pressing me and if the LORD was not helping me, I may crush under the weight it seems.
God will not let that happen. If I commit my works to Him, my thoughts will be established. After all, Isaiah 55:8-9 tell us "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Amen.

Pray for Barter's Island Baptist Church

How amazing it is to see the LORD of Glory part the clouds and bring light and with it clarity to a clouded world. God is so good!

Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established. Proverbs 16:3 Ohhh what that verse means to me now. God knows!

You don't have to shoulder it alone.....

1 Peter 5:7 "Casting all your care on him; for he careth for you." These 11 words play such a vital role in my life. Isn't it so easy to fall into the trap where we begin to crush under the heavy weight that life sometimes brings to us? All mankind has this thing in common: we will all go through suffering. If you have breath, you will have suffering. Some people will see worse suffering than others. I think of great Godly people that are physically suffering through cancer or other debilating diseases. Others have lost loved ones that died way before "their time". The truth is we all suffer. Isn't it great to know that if you are a child of God, you never, ever have to go through it alone! The Lord Jesus Christ wants us to cast our cares upon Him. He knows that we can not handle the burden alone. Shouldn't we all heed what He is saying to us? After all, he created us and He knows us more than we know ourselves. Please, be encouraged in this: God loves you and wants to shoulder your burdens!

The Jones family had a great Lord's Day at the Tri Town Baptist Church in East Millinocket, Maine yesterday. I had great liberty to preach the Word of God! We had great fellowship with the Stanleys and the Johnstons over lunch. After the evening service we drove home through the pouring and blowing rain, but the Lord granted safe passage. What a blessing. I can't wait to see what this week will bring!

I just don't deserve it.....

What a blessed week we have had! It was finals week at Heritage Baptist Bible College. Congratulations to Erica and Sarah Granquist and Pastor Nathan Pelkey for all earning an A+ score (99 average) in Bible Doctrines, and Paula Gravelle for earning a high score of A+ (98 average) in Old Testament Survey. Both classes were a tremendous blessing. We will certainly miss the Caudills as they venture south to Oklahoma on Wednesday morning. They will be missed! Saturday morning was a great time of visitation in Augusta. Those of you that don't go door-to-door in your communities are missing a real blessing. There may be harsh words and rude comments sometimes, but it is genuinely a blessing to know you are being obedient.
Sunday services were very special. Pastor Wiley preached a great message on the Romans Road. We are so blessed to have such great preaching every week. Following the morning service the good folks at Church Hill Baptist shocked my family with a Pastor appreciation gift. I will discuss that soon. In the evening service we had Pastor Nathan Pelkey preach for us. I have not listened to the message yet (I was in awana) but all reports were really good. What a special thing it is to have such good friends in the ministry.
Now for the gifts: they were awesome! We received numerous gift cards, some cash and I was given the above pictured Bible. It is a text only note takers edition from Local Church Bible Publishers. I can honestly say I don't deserve how much God has blessed my family. I don't deserve salvation to begin with, but God saved my family and I. He not only brought me to the greatest church in the world, but called me into the ministry. Now the generosity shown to us is astounding. I just can't believe it. All I can say to my Church Hill Baptist family is: WE LOVE YOU. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOU DO FOR US. And to my Lord and Saviour: THANK YOU LORD! God is sooooo good!

Another great Sunday

God is good all the time! For the second time in the last two weeks we had the opportunity to visit another Indpendent Fundamental Baptist church to preach the Word of God! Last week it was the Tri Town Baptist Church in Millinocket. This Sunday it was Barter's Island Baptist Church. Pastor Wiley receved a call on Friday afternoon asking if he or myself could fill in on the island. I was very happy to answer the call. I taught Sunday School and preached the morning and evening service. Preached out of Proverbs 22 and Joshua 4 in the morning service and 1 Peter 5 in the evening service.
Just three weeks ago I prayed for the Lord to give me more opportunities to preach. Oh, boy did He answer! I praise God for His call to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Please continue to pray for the Barter's Island Baptist Church.

We did miss our church family today. It has now been two Sundays in a row that we have been out of our church. Pastor joked that he was going to put us on the visitation list since we have been out of church. That is funny. What a joy to serve with Pastor Wiley. He is not only my pastor and my boss, but a great friend and a mentor to me. We praise the Lord that Anderson got saved today! I also found out that my cousins daughter also got saved today! Oh, what a blessing that these two young souls now belong to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Praise God!

This week will be busy one with finals in both Bible Doctrines and Old Testament Survey. I still need to finish my paper for Bible Doctrines as well as finish reading the Old Testament and the OT textbook. I also run my full Pep Farms run tomorrow..... It's great to be busy about the King's Business!