Northwest News!

Here is a great article by Janis Hutchinson that helps us to understand the difficulties associated with coming out of a cult.

“If I had known about the aftereffects of coming out of the Mormon Church, I never would have left!”

The years spent in that church weren’t as bad as the Bryanites or Mormon Fundamentalism—that is, there was no physical abuse. But cult-like, the Mormon Church repressed independent thinking, forbid questioning, taught bizarre doctrines, required blind obedience, and deceived members regarding its history. Because I had burned the last bridge behind me by requesting my excommunication, I knew I couldn’t return. I certainly had no inclination to return to the other two.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

On this Sunday, July 1, our church will be celebrating it’s first anniversary.  God has been so good to us over the last year, helping to establish the Northwest Baptist Church, a cross-community Christian fellowship.  Please come and invites someone to come with you for a great day, on Sunday, 1 July, at 10.30 AM & 7.00 PM.

• Special Bible Messages by Austin Gardner, pastor of Vision Baptist Church in Alpharetta, GA.  He and his wife Betty have been in the ministry for many years.  They have been married for 33 years and have 4 children and several grandchildren.
• There will be singing, good fellowship, a special tea after the evening service, and a bit of craic!
• Come join us at 10 Pelham Rd, Knightsbridge!
• Powerpoint presentation of pictures of everything that happened over the last year.

God has been so good to us over the last year.  On 2 July 2006, we had our first Sunday services with 8 folks in attendance on the Sunday night.  Since then we have see God do great and mighty things:

• 117 people have visited with us over the last year (July 06 - June 07) through the church services, youth meetings, children’s meetings, ladies meetings, and other meetings and activities of our church.
• We have been involved in…
  • Evangelism and outreach to youth on the cityside and waterside
  • Evangelism to the cults such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons
  • Working with the PSNI to deal with youth on the streets
  • Mentoring young people through NIACRO
  • Ladies cooking and craft meetings
  • Children’s Sunday School and Bible clubs
  • Outreach to international people
  • Youth Activities and Day Trips such Culdaff, Walking the 2 Bridges, Football Outings, Film Nights, Game Nights, etc.
  • Preaching at other churches around Northern Ireland
  • Working with Oakgrove Integrated College to host and help out with visiting groups from America
  • Hosting American mission teams
• We have studied the following topics…
  • Discovering God - His Nature and Attributes 
  • I Timothy Series
  • How to Have Healthy Relationships
  • How to Study the Bible 
  • What is the Church?
  • Evidences of the Christian Faith
  • Beginning Series (Genesis Series)
  • What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality 
  • How to Resolve Anger and Conflict
  • How to Be Right with God  (Romans Series)
  • The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
  • Why the Cross 
  • Essential Bible Truths - Deity of Christ, Way of Salvation, True Repentance, New Birth, and Faith
  • Family Messages and Other Topical Studies
• We have started a discipleship course called the “New Life in Christ” series.  Several people are working through the course.
• We were able to translate the tract “This Was Your Life” into Irish and mail out hundreds of copies to pastors and missionaries around Ireland. 
• Our church now has the following ministries…
  • Children’s Ministry
  • Youth Ministry
  • Ladies Ministry
  • Cult-proofing Ministry
  • Discipleship Ministry
  • Rogma Training Ministry
  • Newsletter and Outreach Ministry
  • Irish Tract Outreach
• We have been involved through correspondence, prayer, and financial support of the Christian Institute’s fight against the new Sexual Orientation regulations.
• Scores of prayers about health problems, financial problems, death in families, salvation, etc. have been prayed for and answered.

As you can see God has been so very good to us.  I cannot believe all that He has allowed us to do.  It has been a wonderful first year!  Thank you all so much to all of you who have been involved so faithfully in the work of our church.  Thank you to the leaders in our church who help me serve and lead in our church.  Thank you to everyone who has attended and invited friends. 

Please pray with us as we look to Christ and to the future.  If the Lord tarries His coming for another year, I hope and pray that through our church we will see the gospel to preached to many people in the Northwest and around the world, souls saved, lives changed, and leaders trained for the honour and glory of God!

It is written in the Bible (Galatians 6:7): “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.“

Here are some men and women who mocked God:

JOHN LENNON: Some years before, during his interview with an American Magazine, he said: “Christianity will end, it will disappear. I do not have to argue about that. I am certain. Jesus was ok, but his subjects were too simple, today we are more famous than Him” (1966). Lennon, after saying that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, was shot six times.

TANCREDO NEVES (President of Brazil): During the Presidential campaign, he said if he got 500,000 votes from his party, not even God would remove him from Presidency. Sure he got the votes, but he got sick a day before being made President, then he died.

CAZUZA (Bi-sexual Brazilian composer, singer and poet): During a show in Canecï (Rio de Janeiro), whilst smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some smoke into the air and said: “God, that’s for you.” He died at the age of 32 of AIDS in a horrible manner.

THE MAN WHO BUILT THE TITANIC: After the construction of the Titanic, a reporter asked him how safe the Titanic would be. With an ironic tone he said: “Not even God can sink it” The result: I think you all know what happened to the Titanic.

MARILYN MONROE: She was visited by Billy Graham during a presentation of a show. He said the Spirit of God had sent him to preach to her. After hearing what the Preacher had to say, she said: “I don’t need your Jesus”. A week later, she was found dead in her apartment.

BON SCOTT: The ex-vocalist of the AC/DC. On one of his 1979 songs he sang: “Don’t stop me, I’m going down all the way, down the highway to hell”. On the 19th of February 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, he had been choked by his own vomit.

CAMPINAS/SP IN 2005: In Campinas, Brazil a group of friends, drunk, went to pick up a friend. The mother accompanied her to the car and was so worried about the drunkenness of her friends and she said to the daughter - holding her hand, who was already seated in the car: “MY DAUGHTER, GO WITH GOD AND MAY HE PROTECT YOU.”

She responded: “ONLY IF HE<BR>(GOD) TRAVELS IN THE TRUNK, CAUSE INSIDE HERE IT’S ALREADY FULL”. Hours later, news came by that they had been involved in a fatal accident, everyone had died, the car could not be recognized what type of car it had been, but surprisingly, the trunk was intact. The police said there was no way the trunk could have remained intact. To their surprise, inside the trunk was a crate of eggs, none were broken.

CHRISTINE HEWITT: A Jamaican Journalist and entertainer, said the Bible (Word of God) was the worst book ever written, in June 2006 she was found burnt beyond recognition in her motor vehicle.

The Lord really blessed us in a special way on yesterday!  We had a good group out, a great time of fellowship, and the preaching was very good by Bro. Knickerbocker on “What Does it Cost to Love?” and “Having the Right Kind of Heart - A Believing and Soft Heart”.  Also, the Lord blessed with one teenage girl making a profession of faith!  We praise the Lord for that, and we look forward to what God is going to do in the future. 

Please pray with us about God’s leading and direction.  We want to know His will for the next steps for our church, and we really need to make this a matter of prayer. 

Thank you all so much for your faithfulness and desire to serve the Lord.  I count it an honour to know you and to be able to serve the Lord with you.

Liam sent me this poem that was written by a girl dying with cancer.  I thought it was very good.

Have you ever watched kidsOn a merry-go-round?

There is no question that the Bible claims to be the Word of God. In fact, over 2,000 times in the Old Testament alone, from the beginning (Gen. 1:3) to the end (Mal. 4:3), the assertion is made that God Himself spoke what is written within its pages.

This theme continues into the New Testament, where the phrase “the Word of God” occurs over 40 times. Without apology or qualification, the Bible declares that it was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2 Tim. 3:16–17; 2 Pet. 1:21), and that its message is absolutely true (John 17:17; cf. Pss. 19, 119) because its divine Author is incapable of falsehood (cf. Titus 1:3; Heb. 6:18).

But how can we, as Christians, be confident in accepting such claims? After all, there are other religious books that claim to come from God. And there are also many people who adhere to no religious book at all. So what is it about the Bible that compels us to believe its testimony is true?

This is the question that R. A. Torrey asked himself nearly a century ago. It is the question we hope to address in this series. Like Torrey, we have developed a list of ten reasons why we believe the Bible is the Word of God (based in part on his original list). Today we will only mention the ten, with the intention of exploring each of these in subsequent posts.

We believe the Bible is God’s Word because . . .

1. It explains us and our world in a way that perfectly corresponds to reality. In other words, it is the special revelation (Psalm 19:7–11) necessary to truly make sense of general revelation (Psalm 19:1–6; Romans 1, 2).

    Ronald Nash: Christian theism is only one of a number of competing conceptual systems. . . . When faced with a choice among competing touchstone propositions of different world-views, we should choose the one that, when applied to the whole of reality, gives us the most coherent picture of the world. (Faith & Reason, 51)

    John Gerstner: The Bible answers the questions which nature raises. This seems to be an initial presumption in favor of the Bible’s being the very word of God, namely, that it answers the questions which only God can answer. (Reasons for Faith, 69)

2. It is accurate in the areas in which it can be tested (such as science and history), and therefore credible in areas where it cannot be tested (such as faith) (cf. Psalm 119:160; John 17:17).

    William Lane Craig: Sooner or later, however, the core question concerning Scripture’s trustworthiness must be raised – are its historical portions factual? Or to ask the question another way, where the Bible purports to be relating things that happened on this earth at a particular period of its history, is it conveying accurate or reliable information about what was said and done? . . . . It is this historical nature of Christianity which sets it off from many other world religions, particularly the Eastern religions. (Reasonable Faith, 195)

3. It’s supernatural character has been validated by hundreds of fulfilled prophecies (cf. Isaiah 53; Daniel 9:24–27; John 5:39–47; 1 Cor. 15:3–4).

    Rubel Shelly: The strongest single evidence of the Bible’s divine origin . . . is predictive prophecy. . . .  Everyone one of the scores of Old and New Testament predictive prophecies has been fulfilled to the letter, except for those relating to the second coming of Crhist, the final judgment, and eternity. The fact of the fulfillment of those prior prophecies is conclusive proof to Christians that the remaining ones will come to pass. The Bible itself places great emphasis on predictive prophecy as proof of the integrity of the total system of things revealed therein. (Prepare to Answer, 117-1

4. It is marked by a clear and consistent message, despite being written by many human authors over a period of 1,500 years (cf. 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20–21). 

    F.F. Bruce: The Bible, at first sight, appears to be a collection of literature—mainly Jewish. If we enquire into the circumstances under which the various Biblical documents were written, we find that they were written at intervals over a space of nearly 1400 years. The writers wrote in various lands, from Italy in the west to Mesopotamia and possibly Persia in the east. The writers themselves were a heterogeneous number of people, not only separated from each other by hundreds of years and hundreds of miles, but belonging to the most diverse walks of life. In their ranks we have kings, herdsmen, soldiers, legislators, fishermen, statesmen, courtiers, priests and prophets, a tent-making Rabbi and a Gentile physician, not to speak of others of whom we know nothing apart from the writings they have left us. The writings themselves belong to a great variety of literary types. They include history, law (civil, criminal, ethical, ritual, sanitary), religious poetry, didactic treatises, lyric poetry, parable and allegory, biography, personal correspondence, personal memoirs and diaries, in addition to the distinctively Biblical types of prophecy and apocalyptic.

    For all that the Bible is not simply an anthology; there is a unity which binds the whole together. An anthology is compiled by an anthologist, but no anthologist compiled the Bible. (The Books and the Parchments, 8

5. It is unsurpassed in its literary quality, moral ethic, and social impact as would be expected if God were its Source (cf. Psalm 119:137–144). It likewise possesses an inexhaustible richness (cf. Rom. 11:33–36) which satisfies the thirsty soul (cf. Psalms 1:2-3; 42:1).

    A. Rendle Short: Needless to say, if it be true that the Book is divinely inspired, we shall expect to find that it is in quite a different category from all other books whatsoever. We shall be interested to study to what extent the divine inspiration overrules the human element. Ordinary English writers of prose or poetry, Shakespeare, Bunyan, Tennyson, make no such claim as this, nor do their writings exhibit the marks of it. (Why Believe?, 59)

    Bernard Ramm: Our logic in this case shall be rather plain. All of the various tributes paid to the Bible are in reality one tribute: the Bible is able perennially to grip profoundly the human soul. Wherein rests this peculiar magnetism of the Bible? Is it in its literary power or beauty? Is it in its dramatic elements? Or, perchance, it is in its human interest values? However, to keep the most significant issue to the front of the real question is this: is the power of the Bible to grip the human soul of divine or human origin? (Protestant Christian Evidences, 224)

6. It changes the lives of individual people, through the power of the Spirit, transforming those who were slaves of sin into sons and daughters of righteousness (cf. Psalm 119:97–104, 130; Eph. 6:18; Heb. 4:12; 1 Pet. 3:1-2).

    Josh McDowell: My father’s life was changed right before my eyes [when he trusted Christ]. It was like someone reached down and switched on a light inside him. He touched alcohol only once after that. He got the drink only as far as his lips and that was it—after forty years of drinking! He didn’t need it any more. Fourteen months later, he died form complications of his alcoholism. But in that fourteen-month period over a hundred people in the area around my tiny hometown committed their lives to Jesus Christ because of the change they saw in the town drunk, my dad. (The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, xxvii)

    John Frame: In Scripture we not only find the information needed to reform, to sanctify our lives; we also find there the ability to do so; for the Holy Spirit of God works in and with the word, and he works in saving power.  Thus we have an additional motive to return again and again to Scripture. It is there that we find the strength to change, to reform our ideas and life-decisions in obedience to God. The words of Scripture and the Spirit therein work together (not, of course, independently); thus by the Spirit’s work, the words “captivate” us, “grip” us. We find them memorable, penetrating, profoundly true. We find that we cannot avoid taking them into account. (“Rationality and Scripture,” Online Source)

7. It stands alone among other books that claim to come from God, in both its external verifiability and its internal consistency (cf. Isaiah 41:21–23).

    John Ankerberg and John Weldon: In conclusion, the fact that Christianity more logically and adequately explains our existence than does any other religion, and that its theological teaching are unique [among world religions], argue in part for biblical Christianity being the true religion. . . . The Bible is the only ancient book with documented scientific and medical prevision. No other ancient book is ever carefully analyzed along scientific lines, but many books have been written on the them of the Bible and modern science. (Fast Facts on Defending Your Faith, 33, 84–85)

8. It continues to victoriously withstand the attacks of its critics. Despite attempts to undermine its message, the Bible has stood the test of time.

    Norman Geisler: While many have doubted the accuracy of the Bible, time and continued research have consistently demonstrated that the Word of God is better informed than its critics. In fact, while thousands of finds from the ancient world support in broad outline and often in detail the biblical picture, not one incontrovertible find has ever contradicted the Bible. (Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics)

9. It was confirmed as the Word of God by Jesus Christ. As Christians, insofar as we believe in Jesus Christ, we must also believe that the Bible is the Word of God. 

    R.C. Sproul: According to Jesus, the writings of Scripture are more than generally reliable. They are the veritable words of God, unable to be broken. He not only taught that they were verbally inspired, he taught that “until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matt. 5:18; cf. Luke 16:17; 24:25-27; John 10:35; 13:18; 17:12). (Defending Your Faith, 181)

    John Frame: To be committed to Jesus Christ is to honor his word, above all other words. Van Til, together with all orthodox believers, held that the word of Christ, the word of God, is to be found in the Holy Scriptures, indeed that the Bible is the word of God. (“Antithesis and the Doctrine of Scripture,” Online Source) 

10. It is made certain by the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer (cf. John 10:14–16; 1 Cor. 2:10–16).

    William Lane Craig: Reason can be used to defend our faith by formulating arguments for the existence of God or by refuting objections. But though the arguments so developed serve to confirm the truth of our fatih, they are not properly the basis of our faith, for that is supplied by the witness of the Holy Spirit Himself. (Hard Questions, Real Answers, 37-3

    R. A. Torrey: The Holy Spirit sets His seal in the soul of every believer to the Divine authority of the Bible. It is possible to get to a place where we need no argument to prove that the Bible is God’s Word. Christ says, “My sheep know my voice,” and God’s children know His voice, and I know that the voice that speaks to me from the pages of that Book is the voice of my Father. You will sometimes meet a pious old lady, who tells you that she knows that the Bible is God’s Word, and when you ask her for a reason for believing that it is God’s Word she can give you none, She simply says: ”I know it is God’s Word.” You say: “That is mere superstition.” Not at all. She is one of Christ’s sheep, and recognizes her Shepherd’s voice from every other voice. She is one of God’s children, and knows the voice which speaks to her from the Bible is the voice of God. (“Ten Reasons I Believe the Bible is the Word of God”)

Though we will discuss these in greater detail in upcoming posts, we would welcome any thoughts on this summary list. 

I thought this article would be good as we work at planting Northwest Baptist Church.

Most church plants are not growth phenoms. They follow a typical curve that Ed Stetzer is famous for talking about, and these churches don’t grow in the same way over time. As the dynamics in the plant change, the mechanism of growth has to change as well…- In the early stages, a church plant grows from the sole efforts of the church planter.

As we near our first year as a church, it is good for all of us to evaluate the role God would have us play in His plan for our church.  Sometimes we can feel pressure to have big numbers, large offerings, souls saved, people baptised, and outward fruits, but the truth of the matter is that if we focus on these things, we have lost the plot!

The goal is to become more like Christ, to focus on Him and our obedience to Him.  2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”  If we focus our attention on trying to be like Christ in our walk with God, our studying Scripture, our prayer, our witnessing, our faithfulness to fellowship with other believers, our giving, our discipling, visiting and caring for others, then God will take care of the results. 

We cannot do anything about the product (God’s results), but we can do something about the process (our obedience).  God has blessed us in a great way as a church!  I am so grateful for the results we have seen, and I hope that we will all keep our focus on Christ and obeying Him, leaving the results up to him.  I cannot control the results, but I can control how much I pray, study the Bible, give, evangelise, pass out tracts, invite people to church, seek to glorify God, spend time with my family, love people, and care for the hurting as Christ would!

Tomorrow is the last Sunday of June and the last Sunday of our first year as a church.  I am really excited about the services tomorrow, and I hope that all of us are all looking forward to what God is going to do and praying for His blessings.

We have had a good time with Evangelist Dan Knickerbocker and his wife Anne Marie yesterday and today.  Bro. Knickerbocker and I were able to go out for a few hours today to do some visiting, and we had alot of people who were home who said they would try to make it out for the services.  Please be praying for Bro. Knickerbocker as he will be preaching on tomorrow that God will do great and mighty things. 

Thank you very much to each one of you for your faithfulness and support.  It is such a blessing to pastor the Northwest Baptist Church, and I am very excited about what God has in store for us.  Teri and I love you very much.  You are such a blessing and encouragement to us.