Tuesday News and Notes

8:17 AM Starting this week I'm doing the Wednesday night Bible study at the First Baptist Church of Tupelo. And on Thursday nights I'm leading a Men's Bible study based on my book Credo. Next Sunday I'm speaking at Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ed Dobson pastored there for many years until he stepped down because of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). Jim Samra is now the pastor. I know Jim because his wife Lisa is the daughter of John and Karen Grassmick, dear friends with whom we served in the 80s at Northeast Bible Church in Garland., Texas. John is now the Academic Dean at Dallas Seminary, and Karen serves as secretary to Mark Bailey, president of the seminary.

8:08 AM Today I'm heading for my office, which is really the guesthouse on the 105 acres that Alan bought that used to be a church camp called "His Lakes." The cabin where we live once housed the camp director. Twenty-five years ago hundreds of people came to hear preachers like Stephen Olford and Leonard Ravenhill in the lodge on the other side of the lake. They say that over 1000 people would gather in the lodge for the services, and many would bring their RVs and stay for the weekend. If you walk out in the woods, you can still see the RV hookups, an old bathhouse, and the remains of the small wooden cabins that families rented when they came to the camp. They also went swimming and canoeing in the lake. And they went fishing, of course. I'm not a fisherman, but they tell me the lake is still well stocked. After the services in the lodge, the chairs would be cleared away so campers could play basketball, ping pong, shuffleboard and other games. The camp was quite a going operation in the late 70s and early 80s. After it closed in the mid-80s, the area became overgrown and was used mostly by deer hunters. Alan has owned it for about 15 years, and we have lived here since last October.

7:52 AM Here is the latest message in the series "The Transformed Life" from Romans 12-16: Blueprint for a Healthy Church.

You can reach the author at  ray@keepbelieving.com. Click here to sign up for the free weekly email sermon.