We had a wonderful Sunday last week with special services, and we had something happen for the first time in the history of the church. In just a few weeks, Faith Baptist Church will celebrate their sixth year anniversary! We have seen God do wonderful things over these past six years, but on Sunday, we did something for the first time. As we know, there are two church ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We have had both many times through these six years, but on Sunday, we had a baptism and celebrated the Lord’s Supper in the same service! It was a time of remembrance and celebration for the church! We are grateful to God for all that He is doing!

We are preparing things for our Easter Conference that is less than a week away. Please pray for this special conference!

We rejoiced over the two baptisms during last week’s Sunday morning service. We will have another baptism this Sunday, and we are excited about it! Every baptism is something that the church rejoices over! It is identifying the believer with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and a step in obedience to Jesus’ command. This Sunday’s baptism is so special to us because our daughter Ivy will be the one getting baptized! We are grateful for how the Lord is working in her and will rejoice with her as she follows Jesus in believer’s baptism!

These are exciting times in the ministry in Argentina. A young man at the church told me he wanted to talk with me after the service on Sunday night. We stepped outside and he shared with me how God has been working in his heart. I have been praying for this young man for some time. He shared with me how He believed God put in him the desire to start and pastor a church! He knows he is not ready but wants to begin to train to accomplish what the Lord has put in his heart. This is so exciting! I have seen the Lord work in a handful of men since we have been here. They are all in different “levels” spiritually, but they all have something in common, they want to serve the Lord and believe that God has put a desire in them to be in the ministry. Pray for these young men with me. By faith, we will plant churches with them in the future!

A daily discipline that every Christian should have is read the Bible. We live in a day when we can have a copy of the Bible on our phones and/or on our computers/tablets. The days of “I can’t read my Bible today because I forgot it at church” are over. My wife Leslie and I (as well as two of our daughters) read from the same passage of the Bible each day. This is a blessing because we can talk about what we read that morning and it is fresh on all of our minds. That being said, there are days when I read the Bible and I receive so much out of it! I enjoy those days so much, I journal my thoughts about what I read each day and on those days I have long entries about various verses I read that day. There are also days when I don’t really understand what I read, or if it did understand, I really don’t have anything to journal. I feel guilty sometimes, but when on days like that, I journal something like, “I did not understand what I read” or “I don’t really have anything to share from what I read this morning”. But the truth is that most days are not those amazing days or those really hard days, most days are in between the two extremes. I don’t have some great profound thought to journal most days, instead I have little nuggets or “crumbs” of truth that I journal. With that in mind, I share with you a small “crumb” that I recently received out of my daily Bible reading. I hope it is a blessing…

“¹⁴ And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord. ¹⁵ And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them.” Joshua 9:14-15

“…and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord”, with these words a Christian should know that Israel was going to have bad problems. But as I examine myself, I realize that I do it as well. I know that talking with God before speaking or before making decisions would save me from many problems. Arrogantly, I want to make decisions in an instant, but I see in this story that it results in a mess. God knows everything, I know very little, and even the things that I “know” and “understand”, I know it only partly. God knows everything and He knows it all completely and I have the blessing and honor of being able to ask Him in prayer to guide me. When I inquire of God (in prayer)…

• I am submitting myself under his authority.
• I am recognizing that I am nothing and that He is God.
• I am waiting for His answer.
• I am trusting God to guide me on the subject.

I want to do everything possible to stop, pray, and wait until God leads me.