From the Shepherd's Heart....Wednesday, September 27, 2017

This weekend is a special weekend for us as we welcome "Answers in Genesis" to Rainsville First Family. See the schedule to the left.

Tonight is a full night here.  Keith Beatty will be leading the 6:10 Adult Bible Study and then Ben Coots is preaching for the Student Service.  Arrow Kids' Clubs will meet, as well.

This Saturday is the last day of Upward Football season. I want to thank Drew Hogsed for his dedicated service to leading this ministry and doing such a great job from promotion, preparation and dealing with all the coaches, players and parents.  Thank you Drew.

As most of you know, Drew and his family will be relocating to Athens where he is already is working.  We will miss them badly at Rainsville First and we salute him for three years as serving as our Upward Football Commissioner.

This Sunday night between the two sessions the annual Upward Football Awards will be given in an abbreviated ceremony.

William Tyndale .... 500 Years of the Reformation

“To scatter Roman darkness by Scripture’s light, the loss of land and life I will reckon slight.”

William Tyndale (1494-1536) is known as the Apostle of England. A linguistic genius—he was proficient in at least eight languages—he made it his life’s goal to translate the Bible from its original languages into English, a feat never before accomplished. Forbidden from this task by both king and Church, Tyndale fled England at age 30 to live the rest of his life as an outlaw.

He first hid in Germany where he sat under Luther’s preaching and studied the newly completed German Bible. When Tyndale started his translation, he needed a city with a printing press, a paper mill, only loose Catholic control, and along a river so he could export his work back to England. He settled on Worms, where Luther stood trial a decade earlier. When Tyndale was run out of Worms, he fled to Antwerp. There shippers smuggled his Bibles into England, where they were sold from the docks, all against the King’s direct orders. 

Eventually, Tyndale’s operation was infiltrated by an English spy. He was betrayed, kidnapped, and spent five-hundred days in a Brussels dungeon where he nearly froze to death. He was then paraded through town, formally excommunicated, and hung to death by a chain as he was hoisted onto a wooden cross. His body was then covered in gun powder and the cross was lit on fire, causing his corpse to explode.

His last words were “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.”

Posted by The Cripplegate

From the Shepherd's Heart...Friday, September 22, 2017

I'm delighted to be back in the pulpit at Rainsville First Baptist Church this Lord's Day.  I appreciate Larry Wright and Kyle Coots preaching last Sunday in my absence.

We return to continue preaching the sermon series "Beginnings" based on Genesis 1-11 as we look at "The Beginning of the Family" in Genesis 2.  Due to the importance of this topic and the amount of material needing to be shared, I have altered my preaching plan to make this two messages for this Sunday.

Sunday morning we will focus on the marriage and how God created the desire of Adam for a mate, formed Eve and brought her to him.

In the beginning of marriage, we see God established authority and responsibilities for the husband and wife.  We will examine these truths on Sunday night in the message.

This Sunday night will be our first Quarterly Business meeting immediately following the evening service.  Among other things the Interim Budget and Nominating Team report will be presented.

Praying for the Burke Family as Bro. Edmond Burke passed away Wednesday night. Visitation is tomorrow beginning at 10:00 a.m. at the church with the funeral at 1:00.

Martin Luther....500 Years of the Reformation

“My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything. God help me. Here I stand, I can do no other.”

Martin Luther (1483-1546) Martin Luther is widely known as the architect of the reformation. On October 31, 1517, Luther famously nailed 95 theses on the castle door of Wittenberg as a “protest” against the Pope and the selling of indulgences.

As a monk in the Roman Catholic Church, Luther lived a miserable life. No matter how hard he worked, or how much he fasted and prayed, he never felt like he was righteous enough to earn God’s favor. Years of hard work and even a trip to Rome couldn’t assuage his guilt.  

The rescue Luther sought would be found in the pages of Scripture. As he studied, Luther became convinced that salvation could never come by his inadequate attempts at atonement, but can only be received as a gift from a gracious God who declares sinners righteous through the blood of Christ alone by faith alone. Luther declared later that this was the moment he was born again.

Luther’s fame as a theologian and apologist grew, but his love for God’s word burned brightest. Following the example of John Wycliffe, he went on to translate the Bible into German so that the gospel which had rescued him would be available to all. Luther died in his hometown of Eisleben, Germany in 1546, nearly thirty years after he struck the nail which launched the Protestant Reformation, but his example continues to inspire believers around the world.

From the Shepherd's Heart...Friday, September 15, 2017

This coming Lord's Day will be a special day for Rainsville First Baptist Church as you have the opportunity and privilege of hearing Larry Wright.

Larry last preached here in November 2015.

I was privileged to be a partner with Larry in preaching several Pastor's Conferences in Africa in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Sunday night our own Kyle Coots will be preaching.  I know you will be blessed to hear Kyle.  He is a life long member of this church, is in his first year of teaching at Plainview Elementary School and is currently a student at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Roxanne and I are away this weekend preaching at the University Baptist Church, Thibodaux, LA where we were privileged to be their Interim Pastor for 18 months in 1986-87.  They were such a blessing to us during those days and we are so honored to be returning to preach on their Anniversary Celebration as a church.

John Huss....500 Years of the Reformation

“Even when you are in the devil’s hands, you are still in God’s care.”

JOHN HUSS (1369-1415) “Huss” means goose in Czech, and John Huss is fittingly known as the swan of the Reformation. Before being burned at the stake for teaching that salvation is by faith apart from works, he declared that while his particular goose may be cooked, a swan would rise from his ashes 100 years later to confront the Catholic Church.

Huss was born in poverty, but became a priest so that he could have an income. Later he found Wycliffe’s writings and through them was converted to Christ. He began preaching the gospel and soon became the most popular priest in Bohemia.  

The Catholic Church abhorred his popularity as much as they detested the gospel which he preached. A Church Council had been called to settle the papal schism—three (!) different Popes had been duly elected, each anathematized the others—and the Council of Constance was supposed to undo this. Instead they condemned Huss for preaching the gospel.

Before burning him, they dressed him in his priestly robes, then stripped him naked, and placed a paper crown with mock flames and demons on his head. They burned him to death as he recited Psalm 51. One hundred years later, Luther would nail the 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, and the Reformation would officially begin.

From the Shepherd's Heart....Friday, September 8, 2017

This Sunday I continue the new sermon series through Genesis 1-11 called "Beginnings" with this sermon "The Beginning Work Week" based on Genesis 1: 2-31.

Here are the issues the text will address Sunday:

*  Is there a "Gap" between Genesis 1:1 and 1: 2?
*  Did Satan fall between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2?
*  Are the days of creation in Genesis 1 a literal 24-hour-period?  or more?
*  Does your Pastor believe in evolution?

Then Sunday night, I continue the series with this sermon "The Best of the Beginning:  Man."  We will look at the creation of man which is God's crowning part of creation.

John Wycliffe - 500 Years of the Reformation

“Trust wholly in Christ; rely altogether on his sufferings; beware of seeking to be justified in any other way than by his righteousness.”

 JOHN WYCLIFFE (1320-1384) John Wycliffe is known as the first English reformer. He was a Priest in England when he began reading the Bible in Latin and saw how unbiblical Catholic doctrine had become. Meanwhile, the Pope had fled Rome for France and a rival Pope was elected—both of whom demanded the loyalty of all Christendom. Wycliffe refused, and encouraged others to do the same.

Wycliffe recognized that the most effective way to oppose error was with the Scriptures, so he began the first ever English translation of the Bible. For this, he was declared a heretic by the Popes and placed under house arrest. There he died, but not before his translation had sowed the seeds of truth that would impact England for generations.   

Forty years after his death, the Church ordered his body exhumed and burned, then had his ashes dumped in the Swift River. But rather than stemming the Reformation, the truths that Wycliffe translated spread from England, across the sea, and into Europe, eventually resulting in what we call now the Protestant Reformation.  

Copied from http://thecripplegate.com/