This Sunday our message in the 10:00 service will continue with The Great Questions of The Bible series. The text for this week’s message is found in Matthew 20:32. Here in this passage Jesus asks two blind men who called out to Him, “What will ye that I shall do unto thee?” I would like to ask each of you to think about that. If you had the opportunity to ask the Lord for a request what would you ask of Him? Think about this carefully. How we would answer this question reveals a great deal about us. You can listen to my sermon on this text by going to our sermons on line at allgrace.com. I trust that you will have a blessed Lord’s Day this week and that each of you will consider going to the Lord in prayer and giving Him your personal requests for you own soul and for the people that you care for and minister to.

God bless you all!

Pastor Dickie

Dear Berean Family,

I will be traveling this week to England to attend a board meeting for Evangelical Press. I leave Wednesday and will return the following Wednesday. Please keep me in prayer as I travel. Mary will be going with me and we will have the privilege of seeing Dewi and Mari Higham in London. While I am away I will keep you all in prayer. I am pleased that we have such wonderful deacons and elders who are so competent and spiritual to watch over the church. And of course I cannot say enough about Eric Stewart who has been such a help to me and a great assistant. Eric continues to develop and shows tremendous ability to step up to the challenges of a growing and hungry church. Keep Eric in prayer as I am away this week.

I am finishing up work on my next book on Christian living. I am praying that this book will be a blessing to all our church family and that it will enable our brothers and sisters to grow in the grace that is in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I will keep you posted on when this book will be available for you to read. I am hoping that it will be ready by June or July.

I leave you with the challenge of Colossians 3:1-16 one of my favorite passages in the New Testament.

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. 3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 3:6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: 3:7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. 3:8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. 3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: 3:11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. 3:12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
3:13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. 3:14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. 3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

Great is Thy Faithfulness!

"It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him."

Our God is a great God whose Word is full of precious promises to those who have put their faith and trust in Him. Tomorrow’s message will be on the text in Lamentations chapter three that teaches us that God’s faithfulness and mercies are new every morning. It is my desire that all of you will be encouraged and blessed by the words of Jeremiah the prophet from this text. When we are going through difficult times in our lives it is wonderful to remember how gracious and kind our heavenly father is. Indeed, His faithfulness to each of us is truly great. Pray over this passage and come prepared to worship and to give God glory for all of His many blessings in your life.

I also want to share with the Berean family that my dear friend and fellow worker in the Gospel Pastor Jim Jones went home to be with his Savior on Friday. I am deeply moved to think that my dear friend is in the presence of Jesus today. O how blessed he is to have this wonderful inheritance in Christ! I smile when I think of his joys around the throne with all the redeemed in glory. May we each so live our lives so that when our time of promotion arrives we too, like Jim Jones, will have a triumphant home-going. God bless you all. I look forward to seeing in the Lord’s house tomorrow. Yours in Christ, Pastor Dickie

Dear Berean Family,

We have come through the Easter holiday and are swiftly heading towards summer. As I have contemplated our future as a church I have felt led to share with you the great need for all of us to live our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit. Especially we need to remember the importance of allowing the Holy Spirit to fill us with agape love. The Apostle Paul taught us the importance of agape love in our lives by giving us I Corinthians 13. This chapter is powerful in its challenge to our lives. Here is the text from I Corinthians 13:

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 13:2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 13:3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 13:7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 13:8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 13:9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 13:10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”

In this chapter Paul shares within the first five verses that without (agape) love all the things we may be trying to do for Christ mean nothing. For example if we 1. Speak in tongues. 2. Have the gift of prophecy. 3. Have the gift of faith to trust God for great things. 4. Give all your goods to feed the poor. 5. And give your body to be burned, but have not love it profits us nothing. Someone said this is 5-1 = 0. God’s math is not different from ours but His prospective certainly is. This equation means that if I have these 5 gifts mentioned above but lack love it equates to zero in the eyes of God. Let us not forget then the importance of true agape love that comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Please read this chapter and meditate on the qualities that Paul tells us are the signs and evidence of the Holy Spirit’s working in our lives.

If we fail to apply the teachings of this chapter to our personal lives and to our church family and how we interact with each other we are really not any different from the Corinthians. The Corinthian church was known for its strife, division, lack of love, judgmental attitude, and pride. May we not be modern day Corinthians. Rather, may we be Spirit filled Christians who display the love of Christ in our daily lives. God bless you all as you seek to live a life filled with the fragrance of the love of Jesus Christ.