Resource Wednesday 02/10/10

This resource Wednesday I thought I'd leave you with the link to the conference Kim and I are attending right now in Lafayette, IN. The website shows the speakers and schedule information. Feel free to check it out at Biblical Counseling Training Conference.

Out of Town

This week I am out of town at a Biblical counseling conference in Lafayette, Indiana. My friend, Kim, and I are attending the conference together. Kim is a marriage and family therapist working in the secular world right now but pursuing nouthetic certification as a Biblical counselor for use in her occupation in the future. I have an interest in mentoring teenagers and other ladies, and Kim thought the training and certification would be helpful toward that end. So, we are pursuing this together.

The conference starts on Sunday afternoon (yesterday) and goes until Friday, late morning. It will be long days of training (8 am until 8 pm each day) with a few session breaks in between. Please pray that God will allow us the ability to retain the information we are taking in.

I will be out of town this entire week, so I have scheduled my blog posts ahead of time. I will try to check in one time during the week via Kim's laptop with an update (most likely Tuesday).

Please keep us in your prayers.

P.S. As I'm away from home this week, evangelism is forever on my mind. My purse is stocked with tracts (as usual), and I'm praying for the opportunity to use them in my travels.

Evangelism Video 02/06/10

Today I leave you with another interesting evangelism video from the Living Waters University series. This is a video of Ray Comfort witnessing to a man named Dave. I think this video evidences the fact that we don't know how the Holy Spirit is working in a situation before we arrive on the scene (or afterwards). It is our job to be obedient to the Word of God and proclaim the gospel.

Frightening Friday 02/05/10

The first question!!

Tonight I went to the mall to engage in some evangelistic conversations. I usually start out my time there by sitting on a bench and reading my Bible for about 1/2 an hour. Greg made a wooden cross for me with the question "Are You Ready?" written on it in large letters. I put the cross on the bench next to me as I read my Bible. My hope has always been to draw people with the question and hopefully start a spiritual conversation. This was my fourth or fifth time using the cross. Usually people walk by and read the question, some make eye contact, some avert their eyes.

Tonight a man stopped and asked me what I was doing. He also asked me what I hoped to accomplish with the cross. I told him I was hoping to have conversations with people about what happens to them when they die, which naturally led into, "What do you think will happen to you when you die?" He said, "That's a mystery." I asked him if I could share my thoughts on the subject with him, and he said I could. I then brought him through the law (a few of the 10 commandments) and the gospel (the work of Jesus Christ on the cross). He said he had heard about Jesus but he wanted to know how I knew about Him and why I thought it was true. I told him I knew about Him from reading the Bible, and I believe the Bible is true. He asked me where I read about it in the Bible, so I pointed him to the Gospel of John. I gave him a New Testament and opened it to the book of John. I also gave him a gospel tract and a "Why Christianity?" DVD. I urged him to repent and put his trust in Jesus Christ for his salvation. He said it made sense and he wanted to read about it for himself. We talked for about 25 minutes, and then he moved on to find his daughter in the mall.

Please pray for Miguel and that he responds to the gospel in repentance and faith.

Thursday Night Bible Study 2/4/10

Today I'd like to share with you another sermon from our church's Thursday night Bible study and prayer meeting series entitled "Basic Christian Doctrines". This lesson is part 1 on the church. Enjoy!

Women's Bible Study

Tonight we started a new women's Bible study at our church for the year of 2010. Last year we studied the book of Psalms in correlation with Mardi Collier's book "What Do I Know About My God?" It was an excellent study. I blogged about it often and still use the What Do I Know About My God notebook that we created during the course of that study.

This year we will be studying the book of Proverbs. My friend, Kim, has written this study and I'm really looking forward to digging into it. During the course of this women's Bible study, we will be studying what Proverbs has to say about the "the fool", "the wise", "the mocker", and "the simple". We will also be seeking to ask the question, "What have I learned about my God?" with each chapter that we study.

Stay tuned for more postings on this subject as the year progresses OR if you're a lady in the northern metro area of Minnesota, feel free to join us on the first Tuesday of each month (7 pm) at Bible Baptist Church in Otsego.

Cookie Baking Night 2/1/10

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. Ethan, Meghan, Emily, and Carissa were in attendance. For supper we had spaghetti (a Cookie Baking Night favorite). With Valentine's Day in mind, we made cinnamon bears with a red hot candy for the nose. (This is a fun one. It's a simple dough and the kids can shape it to look like a bear--no cookie cutters required).
We continued reading in our book Leading Little Ones to God. Tonight we read lesson 22 entitled "How God Gave Us His Law" (from Exodus 19: 16-19). This lesson was exciting for us because we've been working on learning the 10 Commandments for the last year now. This story reinforced what we've been learning.