Pastor James’ Blog

It’s hard to believe but our FIRST Vacation Bible School as a church will be over after tonight. It’s been a great week. We’ve seen some headway and progress as far as reaching into the hearts of many in our new community. Many seeds of salvation have been planted and we are trusting God that they will come up in the days, months and years to come. Pray for this community – that they might have LIFE (salvation) and have LIFE to the FULL!

  Following VBS tonight we will clean up the building and begin the preperation of getting it ready for open house. The building won’t be totally ready but I have a feeling with this type ministry our building will always be a “work in progress”.  We will do our best to have the building presentable for anyone who comes by for open house tomorrow night (between 6:00 & 8:00 p.m.). 

We are excited that THIS COMING SUNDAY we will have regular services in the AM (9:45 a.m. – Prayer Time, 10:00 – 10:30 a.m. Life House Coffee Shop Fellowship Time, 10:30 a.m. Celebration Worship Service) and following our morning worship service we will have a BIG church wide potluck lunch. Following the Lunch – YOU ARE invited to come join us for a short,  afternoon service at 1:30 to DEDICATE and LAUNCH this new ministry. We will officially LAUNCH and SET SAIL to reach souls, teach the Word and grow a strong New Testament, simple, church in College Hill.  If you can’t come to any of these events – PRAY FOR US!

Lastly – THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all who have worked long and hard hours this week to make VBS and get the building funtional.  Thanks to the Life House Church Family who worked hard and to our brothers and sisters from our sister churches that gave up time and effort to be with us and help. We could have never done it without you!  THANKS!!!  We love you for all you’ve done for Jesus and for us too!

Well, time to head out – gotta get busy ’cause VBS will be here in no time!!     Pastor James

   Cindy likes to say “MY GOD IS AMAZING!” and all I can say is AMEN – HE SURE IS!  I stand in awe at all that He has and is doing in this new work.  We are seeing His hand all over the place!

   VBS is in full swing. Children are responding, opening up and even now bringing new friends with them. The children are becoming familiar with Cindy and I (and the other adults at Life House too) well enough to feel comfortable to stop by the house, yell out “hey” to us when they see us outside, at Family Dollar Store, Miller’s grocery or anywhere else they see us.  We are seeing “little sprouts” of the seeds Life House Family has been planting — coming up little by little.  We are seeing some “get it” when it comes to the idea that we are all sinners and need a Savior. Some of them really didn’t know about Jesus death, burial and resurrection and what that means for us.  Things we traditional “churched” people take for granted – many of those we are coming in contact with never heard.  Pray for souls to be saved.

   We also are seeing God move in big ways when it comes to providing for our needs both as a church and for Cindy and I personally.  We had a new church join us as a “partner church” this past week. They are not a large church from the area but they are giving a monthly missions gift to help us get started.  Our God is AMAZING! God will bless them for their love of missions and souls!!

We have a lady with us this week who came all the way from Newport, Arkansas to volunteer to help in the kitchen, serve, hug on kids and even minister to my family by cooking. We have people this week from Missouri who have come to help out in LOTS of ways for Life House, VBS and for us personally – giving up vacation time to at their own expense to come serve the Lord and His people. We have people from Lewisville (one of our partner churches) – driving on a daily basis to go into the community and invite the kids in the area to come to VBS, work in the VBS and then drive home each night – at their own expense because they love missions and love children. Our sponsor church, Shiloh Baptist and their youth come every night to present the lesson time to the children – giving up their time and expense to love on the kids and help out their mission.  We seen people go out and buy paper goods, food, craft items and ect -just to help out VBS and the mission.  We’ve had another ministry come by and drop off a TON of snacks (LITERALLY – we’ve had to find shelving and tables to store all of the boxes of crackers, candy, cakes, cereal, cokes, can drinks, and MUCH MORE) to help us out – saving us a TON on snacks for VBS and the for many events in the future.  We even had a call in the past two days that someone who loves souls and this new ministry bought a new refrigerator/freezer as a gift for Life House and her ministries – and they had it delivered yesterday!  I received an e-mail yesterday from an evangelistic missions minded pastor who pastors a church in a town up in arkansas telling me that they are bringing furniture and 65 chairs to us at 9 this morning — at their own expense.  TELL ME GOD CAN’T DO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING! Our God is AMAZING!

Our God is amazing also because the building is really shaping up.  Several have given countless hours working to insulate, erect walls and get it useable for ministry – at no labor expense to the misson.  We had one family, who has not even joined our church family yet, call and donate several light fixtures to replace some of those in the building that are not working properly. We are SOOOO blessed!!!!  We had a man from one of our sister churches stop by yesterday to donate a beautiful set of books to be used in the children’s/youth area and even gave a love gift to Cindy and I personally. – God is AMAZING!

Time and again God has confirmed that Life House is His work. Time and again He is providing. Keep praying for this work – get involved as God lays it on your heart and never forget — “STAND BACK AND WATCH GOD WORK”!!  It’s all about HIM – never about us!  He is worthy of our praise!!  Pastor James

Well, the first night of our very first Vacation Bible School has come and gone!  It was a great night. I think we had 46.  We really are blessed to have had several from our sister churches assist us in so many ways to make the first night a success.  We are in the “seed planting” mode and God is going to use every seed planted to come forth with good things in the future. It was a joy to see children all over the building. Smiles, laughter, songs, Bible stories and crafts – what a night!  I can’t wait till tomorrow night! Keep praying that we can plant salvation seeds in the minds and hearts of all the children who attend. Pray that some will be saved!  Thanks again to all who read these blogs and take prayer seriously!  See you again soon — Pastor James

This has been a long day for us but it’s been a good day!  The day began with worship at Life House. The Spirit of God was felt as God’s people sang, praised and worshipped. God blessed our services today by saving one young man! Amen!  We’ve had our first wedding at Life House (this past Saturday night) and now we have seen our first soul saved and soon (next Sunday) if all goes as planned will get to witness our first baptism!   Many of our church family spent the afternoon getting the building ready for our first ever Vacation Bible School. Pray for us! Come join us! Come help us!  It looks like we have some from as far away as Patterson, Arkansas and some from Lewisville and some from here in town coming to help us – thanks to those who give time and energy to support mission work!!!

Tonight I had the blessing of preaching at the Miller County Jail. Great service. The ladies there were receptive and promised to pray every night in a group for our VBS. AMEN!

Well – tired but got more to do before bed. Come see us this week and if you can’t then make it a point to pray for us. Hope you had a great Lord’s day too!  Pastor James

At Life House we try to stress the importance of commitment.  If you say you are going to do something, then keep your word and do it. If you have no intention of “following through” and doing whatever it is you said – then don’t make the commitment.  Whether it’s join the church, take a class to teach, lead out in a ministry or get involved in some aspect of the church – IF you pray about it and then commit yourself to something – just simply DO IT!  Let your “yea be yea” (yes be yes) and your “nay be nay” (no be no). (James 5:12).  So many christians “have good intentions”. Someone has well said that “the road to hell is paved with “good intentions”".  You can have all the ”good intentions” you want and never accomplish anything for the Lord.  One thing that is different at Life House from many other Baptist Churches is that you don’t just walk the isle and “join the church”.  You need to know what you are “signing up for”.  We have four expectations:  1. That you be faithful to worship service.  2. That you be faithful to Life Group meeting. 3. That you be a ”Store House Tither” to provide for the ministries of the church. 4. That you be an ACTIVE part of the ministry – by serving in some capacity.

Any member of the Life House Family who isn’t keeping these areas that they’ve committed to when they joined Life House needs to re-evaluate, renew their commitment or simply resign their membership in the church.  It’s not just a priveledge to join the Lord’s church - with priviledge comes responsibility.  So let me ask:  If EVERY MEMBER of your church was just like YOU, what kind of church would your church be?  You can either be a blessing or burden to your local church. God help us to take the Lord’s church and her ministry seriously.  Every member pulling together can make a difference in the world but a church that has members who aren’t commited is a church that is being handicapped by those who don’t take the ministry seriously.  Think about this: Are you a BLESSING or BURDEN to your local church?

I encourage you , no matter where your membership is, be a blessing. If you can’t serve the Lord where you are, if you feel that God is moving you — then do your church a favor — Don’t just stop attending and lay out — pray, seek God’s face, find HIS WILL and get in the church you can SERVE HIM in!  You will be blessed and so will your church family.  It’s time for the church to arise and be the church!!!! Just my personal thoughts…  Pastor James

It’s hard to believe that in three short days we will be involved in our first ever Vacation Bible School.  Then on August 9th – Open House from 6 – 8 p.m. (Saturday) and then on Sunday the 10th – we will have our official launch day as a new ministry. Even though we’ve already been in operation for about 3 months – that has been time spent to get things in order, train and prepare the core group and get the building ready. When we launch – it will be full speed ahead trying to reach people for Jesus!  Pray for us – there is still LOTS of work to be done to get ready.  If you like “helping” – come by the building in your work clothes. We need all kinds of people with all kinds of talents.  If you THINK we might could use you and you have the heart and time – call me – 903-278-0984 and let’s talk.  Pray for us and if you get the chance – come see us soon!                 Pastor James