Greater Portland Baptist Church

Keith and Donna South: January 2006

(Please note that this was copied and reformatted from an Adobe PDF document)

Three bullets...
There once was a man who had nothing for his family to eat. He had an old rifle and three bullets. So, he decided that he would go out hunting and kill some wild game for dinner. As he went down the road, he saw a rabbit. He shot at the rabbit and missed it. The rabbit ran away. Then he saw a squirrel and fired a shot at the squirrel and missed it. The squirrel disappeared into a hole in a cottonwood tree.— As he went further, he saw a large wild "Tom" turkey in the tree, but he had only one bullet remaining. A voice spoke to him and said, "Pray first, aim high and stay focused." However, at the same time, he saw a deer which was a better kill. He brought the gun down and aimed at the deer. But, then he saw a rattlesnake between his legs about to bite him, so he naturally brought the gun down further to shoot the rattlesnake. Still, the voice said again to him, "I said 'Pray, Aim high and Stay focused."—So, the man decided to listen to God's voice. He prayed, then aimed the gun high up in the tree and shot the wild turkey. The bullet bounced off the turkey and killed the deer. The handle fell off the gun and hit the snake in the head and killed it. And, when the gun had gone off, it knocked the man into a pond. When he stood up to look around, he had fish in all his pockets, a dead deer and a turkey to feed his family.

The snake (Satan) was dead simply because the man listened to God.—Moral of the story: Pray first before you do anything, Aim and shoot high in your goals, and stay focused on God. Never let others discourage you concerning your past. The past is exactly that "the past." Live every day one day at a time and remember that only God knows our future and that he will not put you through any more than you can bear. Do not look to man for your blessings, but look to God only. He has prepared in advance for you in your favor. Wait, be still and patient: keep God first and everything else will follow.—As we begin a new year I believe this is a good place to start. The basics or “milk” of our faith is what will sustain us through the challenges the Lord allows our way. Most problems will always boil down to our Faith, Prayer life, and time in the Word. May our goals be high in the Lord this year, but may we always have the basics down before attempting great things for God.

Pastor's Pen
Exhortations Concerning Godliness

I saw an interesting political cartoon the other day in the paper. John Tower was on the witness stand and was asked: "What would you do if we rejected your nomination on the grounds that you're a boozing womanizer?" His reply: "Move to Massachusetts and run for the U.S. Senate." While acceptable moral standards may vary from state to state, the standards of moral conduct have never changed with God.--1 Kings 9:4; Pro. 11:3

Godliness Exhortations Concerning Pornography Living under the Lordship of Jesus Christ must make a difference in the everyday decisions of life. We must be willing to pay the price of discipleship.—A few years ago, Jack Eckerd, founder of the Eckerd drugstore chain, committed his life to Christ. Shortly afterward as he walked through one of his stores, he noticed the magazine racks with their glossy copies of Playboy and Penthouse. Although Eckerd was retired from active management, he called the president of the company and urged him to get rid of those pornographic magazines. The president protested because substantial profits were gained from their sales. Being the largest stockholder, Eckerd himself stood to lose a lot of money by such a decision. But he remained firm in his objection, and he prevailed. The offensive magazines were removed from all 1700 drugstores. When he was asked what motivated him to take this action, Eckerd replied, "God wouldn't let me off the hook!" Psa 101:3; Eph 5:3—May we as God’s children purpose in our heats, as we start this new year, to always come down on God’s side of the issues we face in a godless world. We may not always be the most popular person, but we’ll trust God for the outcome as we concentrate more on His glory than our popularity.

Pastor

Youth on the Move! by Pastor Steve
Our Teen Group is growing! We’ve had tremendous opportunity to reach new teens, many are unsaved. God has used our group to reach into homes & have a positive impact for God in our community. Please pray for our teens & helpers as we minister to them.—Master’s Kids continues to do well. We’ve had new helpers come out to join in the fun. We’ve seen new visitors regularly, & recently a girl asked Jesus into her life to save her! God is so good to work in the lives of children through regular people like us!