Pastor James’ Blog

This week we have two outreach events that are scheduled and I wanted to invite all who read this blog to join us in praying for them so that they might make the impact in our community for the Lord and for the gospel sake.  It’s not about Life House growing in number – it’s about reaching people with the gospel for the Kingdom’s sake.  Please pray for…

1.  Friday night at 6 p.m. we will have a giant screen showing of “FACING THE GIANTS” in our gym area. We will be serving free refreshments and the movie will be free. While the movie, “Facing The Giants”, may be old news for most of you – many many of the people in our area haven’t seen it. We are hoping that the theme of the movie and the message behind it will give HOPE to those who attend. Pray.

How can you help?  There are several ways.  1. Come and bring a friend or two. 2. Pray pray pray  3. Spread the word in our community – inform people about it.  4. If any of you know of a good christian movie that we could show during one of our movie nights – please e-mail me. We want wholesome, clean movies that will bless our area.

2. We will be having a “LIFE HOUSE TRAVELING KIDZ BIBLE CLUB” at three locations this coming Sunday afternoon.  Pray that at each of these three stops that we will be flooded with children and that we can give them some enjoyment, refreshments and a word from the Lord.  We want to make a positive impact for the gospel in our target mission field.  PRAY!

 SPECIAL REQUEST: The word says that “if two agree as touching it shall be done”. I am asking anyone who reads this particular blog and will agree to pray to simply leave a comment saying “I WILL”. (or more if you want).  I want to report to the church how many people are praying for these events. We believe in prayer and desire you to help us PRAY!  Thanks to all of our prayer warriors out there who read this blog so faithfully. 

SOOOOOOO will you pray for us and for these upcoming evangelistic events?  Well????? 

I’ll be looking to hear from you …..   PASTOR JAMES

  I dont’ have much time to blog at this moment but I JUST HAD to get online and post this late breaking news — I just got an e-mail from Bro. Donnie Edwards (Pastor of Dallas Avenue Church – Mena, AR – they are one of our partner churches) and the ladies of the church held a garage sale to raise funds to help Life House Church & Ministries – and they raised OVER $2,500.00! Can you believe it? WOW! I am having a “bapticostal fit” so I better go and shout some more. “AIN”T GOD GREAT!!”  – More later!  Pastor James

    The blessings just keep on coming at Life House!  Jesus passed by during our services today!  We were blessed with many first time visitors and a real spirit of worship was present. God blessed as people came to the altar and even had one saved! Praise the Lord!  Mission work is much different from that of an established church and every small milestone is one more milestone toward becoming an effective church for the Lord.  One of my pastor friends, (Rev. Keener – New Town Baptist), said recently, “It’s not about the number of people you have, it’s about the dedication of the people you have!”  Though we are a mission and still small – after five months of growth we have seen God bring together a group of dedicated people to do the work of the ministry at Life House.  A church family is only as effective as the dedication of it’s membership. It’s one thing to “talk a good talk” and it’s totally another to “walk the talk”.  It’s my prayer that God would give all churches dedicated people to help in the work of the ministry.

     Another blessing today was that the D.O.G. (Depend On God) Kidz Zone Kidz all colored “We Love Our Pastor” coloring sheets to show their love and appreciation to me as pastor since October is Pastor Appreciation Month.  I’ve made a display of all of them on my office door and I really appreciate all of their efforts, hugs and love. 

   This afternoon some of us attended New Town Baptist Annual Building Fund Program. One of my friends, Sis. Omie Blake, invited us to attend and what a service it was.  Several area churches came and sang as well as several individuals. The music was a blessing as well as the fellowship with our friends.

  TWO  reminders to all who read this blog…

1.  This coming Friday night will be our first ever “Family Movie Night” at Life House. It will begin at 6:00 p.m..  Free refreshments will be served.  We will be showing on a giant screen in the gym area – “FACING THE GIANTS”.  We hope you can come and bring a friend with you.  There is no cost for the movie or refreshments. 

2. Next Sunday afternoon we will have sponsor the “Life House Traveling Kidz Klub” at three locations in College Hill.  We will have puppets (the puppet crew from Dallas Avenue Church in Mena, AR is coming to help us), refreshments, crafts and music.  We will need as many volunteers from Life House Church as we can get to accomplish this event. Several from Shiloh Baptist (our sponsor church) are going to come help us out too.   If you have a LIFE HOUSE t-shirt why not wear it next Sunday!

COMING UP SOON…    November 9th at 6 p.m. (Sunday night) we will have a joint evening worship service at Life House with our sponsor church, Shiloh Baptist Church.  We are planning to have a finger/fork fellowship following the service to allow both churches to get to know each other. 

    Someone brought a copy of a song by Chris Tomlin called ”God of This City”.   The very words of this song really describe the heartbeat of Life House ministries. Here is a link to a video version of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d61LamkXfwk    I hope you will click on it and enjoy it – but most of all listen to the words.   You will see what I mean.

   When the day has been said and done – it’s a joy to be able to say — Jesus passed by!   Keep praying and keep watching for God to do even more in the future.          Pastor James

Last night I had the blessing of leading one of our young men to the Lord!  He had been asking a few questions “here and there” and finally came up to one of our volunteers during our “after school game time” and expressed an interest in being saved. The volunteer found me and we sat in my office, looked at the Word and discussed what it meant to be saved and how to be saved. In a few minutes that young man bowed his head and asked Jesus into his heart!  His smile was as big as i’d ever seen after he trusted the Lord. Pray for him and pray that God would enable us to see others saved in this ministry. Just thought you would want to know that there is “ONE MORE ON HEAVEN’S ROLL BOOK” as of last night!  Have a great day and God bless you all.   Pastor James

Tonight, in spite of the stormy weather, we held our second meeting of the Life House Boys Ministry. This new ministry has an agenda of mentoring young boys and men in our area through fellowship, study of the Word of God, fun, teaching them the basics of being Godly men and feeding them physical food.  There were 9 boys and young men that joined Bro. Markeith and myself.  We had a great time of fun, food, fellowship and getting into the future of our new ministry. Our theme as a group is “Keeping It Real”.  Jesus was REAL in every sense of the word. He was a man’s man. He was 100% God and 100% man. There was nothing “sissy” about Jesus. Never mistake meekness for weakness. A REAL man knows what it is to stand up but also knows how to humble himself and bend his knee to his God.  I am VERY excited obout this new ministry to the boys and young men of our area. Through both the Boys Ministry and the Girls Ministry we are going to see God raise up some who will be great leaders in our church and in our community. We can’t change every person or ever heart in College Hill – but we can make a difference in one life at a time. Pray for us. Pray for these young men and boys. The temptations, trials, hardships and past are really against them and their future – but Jesus is FOR them. If God be for us – who can be against us?  Pray for the children, youth and all the people in our target area. People need the Lord and it’s our goal to give Him to them.  Pastor James

It’s October and Life House Church begins it’s 5th month in existence and the blessings just keep coming!

Today we enjoyed a great time of worship with 62 present and that’s with about 8 of our regulars having to work or being out for various reasons.  Someone recently donated a large flat screen tv to be used as a video screen for our worship service and today was the first day to enjoy that. It looks great. We were able to have our announcements “scrolling” before the service and even have beautiful backgrounds for our worship service.  We also enjoyed a great message brought to us by Bro. Markeith.  He even used a skit during his message and his wife, Darlene, and one of his sons were the characters. They added to the service.  Pray for us as we explore God’s will for the future for Bro. Markeith and Life House.

We were also blessed to have several first time visitors today. We even had some of our regulars express interest in becoming a part of the church family. Pray that God will continue to save and add to the Life House Family as it pleases Him.

Tonight several from our church went to Shiloh Baptist, our sponsor church, to worship with them and for me to give a report of the work of our church. We had 25 or so from Life House to attend and it was a good service with our sister church.  We are so grateful that Shiloh had the vision and heart to join us in taking a step of faith to begin Life House. We pray that God will bless them for their love, prayers and support for this ministry.

   We’ve updated our calendar on the web and I hope you will go to it and look at all of the upcoming events at Life House. If you would like to get involved in any or all of them let us know. Everyone is welcome at Life House.

  It’s been a long but great day and now i’m headed to get some sleep. Tomorrow is another day (if the Lord wills it for us) and I ‘m sure there will be much to do. I hope all who read this blog had a great Lord’s day at your respective churches and that God will bless you for your interest and support of North American Missions.   Come see us and God bless YOU….   Pastor James

God continues to shower Life House with His blessings. Every week He shows us that this new misson was His plan and that He has plans for it to grow and be a blessing in College Hill and Texarkana.

   Just yesterday we received a monthly support check in the mail from another church here in Texarkana that desires to be one of our “Partner Churches”.  AMEN!  God is using several churches to give what they feel led and can to get this ministry off the ground. THANK YOU to all who are “Partner Churches”.  Because of you, your love, support, work and gifts souls are being saved and this community touched for Jesus.

Last night we had a blessing – 41 during the “Wednesday Open Gym” time.  All ages, all colors and all with needs for love, mentoring and the Lord.  THANK YOU so much to the volunteers who come to supervise this ministry. 

Also, starting next Wednesday night – Bro. MarKeith Davis will be leading the Youth Life Group at Life House. Pray for him and invite any youth you know that needs a good church home or needs God’s Word to join us. Contact us for more information.

THANKS also to those who are involved in the Senior Adult Game Days on Wednesdays at the Life House Coffee Shop – 1 p.m. . This group is growing!  If you know of any Senior adults who would like to come “hang out” , drink coffee, tea, soda’s – eat a snack or two or even come play dominoes, skip bo, checkers or anything else “LEGAL” (LOL!) spread the word and invite them to come!  If YOU have nothing do do on Wednesdays – join them too!

Lastly, I am supposed to be with sponsor church, Shiloh Baptist Church, this coming Sunday night to give a report and  share God’s Word with them.  I’ve invited Bro. Markeith to go with me so that I might introduce him to our Shiloh friends and i’ve invited EVERYONE from Life House to join us that night for the service.

Thanks for reading the blogs — now help us out…IF YOU READ THE BLOG – make a comment or two so that we know it’s worth our time to keep the blog going.  If NO ONE reads then why am I spending my time doing this? LOL!!  We KNOW that there are MANY MANY who read this blog each week (we have the data from our web site) so make a comment or two! THANKS!!                      Pastor James

For the past several days our church has been participating in the “40 Days of Prayer” campaign that many of our Southern Baptist churches are involved in.  Throughout this time of prayer the Lord has really impressed upon me the need to pray for this upcoming election. NO – this blog isn’t about being republican or democrat or even independent.  I personally don’t think that either party has the answer for our nation. I believe that the only real hope for American is for God’s people to RISE UP and call on His name, pray, seek His face, turn from OUR wicked ways – repent and then AND ONLY THEN will God hear from us about our nation. Our nation is in a serious situation. We need the Lord.  Just recently on a radio talk show that I was listening to while driving a “commentator” said concerning creation and the upcoming adoption of new textbooks in his particular state, “It’s time we leave out the fairy tale idea of creation. It’s antiquated to think that some “big god” out in the universe stopped and created anything, much less our sophisticated human race”.   WOW – he went on to say that anyone that believes the biblical account of creation is simple minded and needs to come into the present day because of the proven science of evolution.    That’s the kind of junk the world is teaching – here in AMERICA!  Recently one of the candidates, who is on one of the national tickets,  expoused the fact that they are “saved” and believe in God and His Word, was totally made fun of on national television as being too simple to be on the ticket. GOD HELP US!  We as a nation have strayed too far from our roots and God’s Word.   Except a revival come – there is no hope.   No revival will come though until the church gets serious and prays, repents and seeks God.  If you are a believer — are you registered to vote? If you are a believer – how often do you pray for our county, elected officials and those who are in control?  How often do you call your congressman/woman and let your views be know?  We must pray and vote – following God’s leadership.  Let’s pray America back to being the CHRISTIAN NATION that she once was. She WAS founded on biblical principles and God’s Word – regardless of what many say and teach today.  PRAY PRAY PRAY and VOTE!   God help us – help america!

         Pastor James