I have been sending e-mails to the wrong list 2 times...sorry!
I have corrected this today.

Thanks,

Barry

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Visit our website at: www.anchorbible.org

Travis and Laura are expecting!

They go in October to find out the due date.

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Visit our website at: www.anchorbible.org

Please pray for the family of Bonita Churchman.  Bonita died Saturday.  She was only 40. 

 

Also, please continue to pray for Shirley's brother-in-law, Tommy Eidson.  He is still having health problems. 

 

Talmadge called me yesterday before church, and is doing better. 

Please continue to pray for Roy Smith. 

Thanks Pastor Barry

 

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Visit our website at: www.anchorbible.org

I hope all of you Dads had a great Father's Day.

It was great to see Kay back at church today! 

This Wednesday night, we will be studying the book of Philemon. 

Sunday at 10:30 will be our next snack-n-yak.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Barry

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"We will have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only a few short hours to win them."  - Amy Carmichael

Visit our website at: www.anchorbible.org

This Sunday (September 7, 2008) is Grandparents Day. There is an official site found at:
www.grandparents-day.com
There are several places in scripture about the influence of grandparents, and the wisdom that comes with age (see Proverbs 17.6; 20.29; 23.22; 2 Timothy 1.5). Not that grandparents are old! As I often say, "You arent' old until you are 90 - then you are starting to get old!" We are to be grateful and respectful toward our elders, we all have much to learn from them.
But you can't really think about Grandparents Day without the interesting things that they hear or see from their Grandchildren:
A sweet little boy surprised his grandmother one morning and brought her a cup of coffee. He made it himself and was so proud. He anxiously waited to hear the verdict on the quality of the coffee. The grandmother had never in her life had such a bad cup of coffee, and as she forced down the last sip she noticed three of those little green army guys in the bottom of the cup.
She asked, "Honey, why would three little green army guys be in the bottom of my cup?"
Her grandson replied, "You know grandma, it's like on TV, 'The best part of waking up is soldiers in your cup."
~~~

The Bible tells us in several places, that as Christians, we are part of the body of Christ (see Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4). As members of the body of Christ, we have an obligation and responsibility to each other. This means to help each other, pray for each other, and love one another. This is a modern day "parable" that emphasizes this biblical truth:

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.
"What food might this contain?" the mouse wondered - - -he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning :
"There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr.Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him,
"There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr.Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said,
"There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse, I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap . . . alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral; the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

The next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage and help one another.

We can learn a lesson from this, there are times when others are hurting, or something that could be harmful to them may be in their path. Pray for those who are hurting; maybe a phone call, or e-mail or sending a card to remind them that you are praying. Tangible ways of showing that you are concerned mean so very much. If you have not yet read it, there is a related article on our website under "Anchor Articles - Smoother Sailing" entitled, "The Body".

~~~
We have recently added to our Anchor Articles, an article entitled, "Prayer: Where the Action Is", and a book review of Bill Gothard's "Pavilions of Protection" - co-written with Don Veinot of Midwest Christian Outreach.

Recently I have been watching the DVD series, Planet Earth (BBC production - narrated by David Attenborough). 

Their official website is:

Or you can read the wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Earth_%28TV_series%29
This is the most beautiful visual collection of flora and fauna that I have seen on DVD.  The beauty of the earth that our Lord has created is astounding.  I imagine that watching it on high-def television is even better.  The only part of the DVD collection that could have been left out would be the "And x-million years ago...".  There are places and creatures on this DVD that relatively few people have seen with the human eye.  Much of it is filmed from a helicopter with a special camera.  If you get the chance, watch it. 

  

God certainly created a beautiful world.  It isn't as beautiful as it was before Adam and Eve fell into sin, but then none of us were here to see it as it was then.  We can only imagine and speculate how beautiful it must have been.  But not only that, as beautiful as Earth is, it will be nothing compared to the new Heaven and Earth that we will enjoy for the 1000 year reign of Christ, and into eternity (Revelation 21.1-4 ).  God created you and loves you, and wants you to be with him there for eternity.  We are all sinners, and fall short of God's glory (Romans 3.10,23).  God demands perfection.  None of us are perfect, nor can we be.  However, God has provided His perfection through His Son, Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5.21; Ephesians 2.8,9).  Won't you place your faith in Him and receive the only payment and perfection that will get you to heaven?  E-mail us and let us know if you have placed your faith in Christ.  You can read more on our website by clicking "The Gospel" on the left of our page, and by reading our articles. 

There is a tendency in our fallen human nature to hear, but not really listen.  Have you ever talked to a friend and found yourself distracted by what was on TV, or reading, or trying to "multi-task".  You hear what they say, but you don't really listen.  The same can happen with God's word.  We can easily become careless to what He has said, and forget.  Just because we read a verse or passage, or heard it taught or preached about, it doesn't mean that it will always "stick with us". 

 

Do you ever find yourself talking to someone and you try to remember the name of a person, or road, or remember a day when something occurred?  There may be several reasons why we forget, but among them are probably the fact that we do not talk to that person, or visit that place enough to keep our memory fresh.  The same is true with the Bible.  The more we read it, the more we can "give heed" to it to avoid letting it "slip". 

 

The more we read scripture, the more it can minister to us.  Like water (Isaiah 55.8-11, Ephesians 5.26) the Bible is fresh every time we read it.  Every time we read it, we have new problems and challenges that we face.  We always need the wisdom that the Bible gives. 

 

In James 1.22-25 we are told to apply what we have heard and read in the scriptures, or we are sure to forget.

 

Someone sent me this...an interesting comparison of:
Cell phones and the Bible
I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone? 
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets? 
What if we flipped through it several times a day? 
What if we went back to get when we forgot it? 
What if we used it to receive messages from the text? 
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it? 
What if we gave it to kids as gifts (or adults for that matter)? 
What if we used it when we traveled? 
What if we used it in case of emergency? 
This is something to make you go....hmm...where is my Bible? 
So remember this.. 
You'll never have dropped calls and unlike cell phones, we don't have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill. 
But most important of all...you'll never have to ask Him  "Can you hear me now?" 
Makes you stop and think, "Where are my priorities?"

Last week, we added 2 new articles to our Anchor Articles (anchorbible.org).   One is found under Haven of Truth articles simply entitled, "Sin".  The other is under Smoother Sailing articles entitled, "The Tongue".  The Haven of Truth articles deal with doctrinal issues.  The Smoother Sailing articles deal with practical Christian living. 

 

~ ~ ~

Solitude - most dictionaries define it as:

detachment and separation from others".

The word "solitude" is not found in the scripture - at

least not in the translation searches I tried.  However, solitude is certainly in the scripture - sometimes it may be a matter of circumstances, sometimes a matter of choice.

 

Joseph likely felt solitude, and probably loneliness in Pharaoh's prison.  Hannah likely felt solitude and loneliness while she prayed for God to give her a son.  Daniel likely felt solitude and loneliness in the lion's den.  And of course, we have read of the agony and solitude of our Savior in Gethsemane (Luke 22.39-48) the night that he was betrayed; during his trial, and crucifixion and as He breathed His last (Matthew 27.46-50).  The list goes on and on.  

 

Some believe David wrote Psalm 102 while fleeing from

his son, Absolom.  That would certainly be cause for

isolation.  Psalm 102.6,7 says:

The wilderness and the desert can be a lonely place -

apparently David felt as lonely as a pelican would in

the wilderness, as lonely as an owl in the desert.  The

sparrow on the housetop is obviously away from it's

nest.  In fact His eye is on the lonely sparrow.

Solitude can be lonely, but it can also be a time to draw closer to our Lord.  
Jesus gave a wonderful promise concerning solitude in prayer in Matthew 6.6:

"But thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." 

Jesus not only taught solitude times of prayer in word, but He also is our prime example.  In Luke 6.13-16, Jesus

called His twelve disciples/apostles.  However, before he did, Luke 6.12 tells us:

 

The next time when loneliness seems to be overwhelming, look at it as a time to enjoy some solitude with our Lord.  He wants us to use that time wisely (Ephesians 5.16; Colossians 4.5).  Prayer and seeking God's will are wise ways to do that.

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Thanks to Seth and Alyssa for maintaining our website. 
They do a wonderful job.  When you get time, surf around - we add articles, pictures, announcements, etc. every so

often.

Forgetfulness is an all too common occurrence.  I am the world's worst at forgetting names; faces... not a problem, but names are not so easy to remember.  We are all prone to forget things that we really need to remember and remember things we really should forget.

 

 

• There are some things that our Lord forgets! 

Although this is a passage concerning the Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ, we see some practical application for us here and now.  It may not be immediate, but we will one day be able to forget our past.  In this life, we may not forget it completely.  Hopefully we will forget much of that which is painful.  However in our Savior's presence, and in our glorified body we will put all that is unpleasant behind us.

 

For one thing, we should continually remember God's goodness.  God had a lesson for his Old Testament people - Israel:
Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.  Deuteronomy 8.2

We also should remember His word, and allow it to work in our lives:

 

And when we drift spiritually, we should remember where we were and should be in our walk with the Lord; and "get back on track" (Revelation 2.5).

 

A related article by Dr. Richard Seymour can be found at:

Stay in shape!

Ephesians 6.16

"Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be

able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."

Ephesians 6.16 (NLT)

"In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith
to stop the fiery arrows of the devil."

When these words were penned by the Apostle Paul, he likely had the armor and weapons of the Roman army in mind.  Arrows were sometimes dipped in pitch (tar) and lit on fire before being released from the bow.  If the arrow hit the enemy, he would have the double dilemma of the injury and the heat.  The soldier's defense would be a shield.  These shields were usually about four foot to four and a half foot high, and about two and a half feet wide. 

 

Have you ever seen in a movie when the hero gets injured; and then when the hero fights the villain, the villain will attack the injury on the hero?  The villain has seen where the hero is most vulnerable and goes for the hero's weak point.  A visual illustration of the way our infernal enemy

attacks us where we are the most vulnerable. 

 

Satan is our enemy.  He is the enemy of our Lord Jesus, the enemy of God's kingdom and of all that is righteous.  But remember, Satan is a defeated foe (Romans 16.20; Colossians 2.15).  He is the "god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4.4), the "prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2.2); and after the rapture of the church his evil will be even more prevalent than it is now (Revelation 12.12)!  After the tribulation, he will be chained for a thousand years (Revelation 20.1-3); then after the Millennial reign of Christ Satan will be sent to the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20.7-10) for eternity.  He is powerful, but certainly not all powerful!  He is wise, but not all wise.  He has dealt with sinful humanity for thousands of years and he knows where we are weakest.  He specializes in fiery darts.

 

Paul tells us in Ephesians 6.16 that when Satan sends fiery darts our way, we have the shield of faith with which to quench and stop those fiery darts.  Those darts may come in numerous ways: doubt, deception, lust, hatred, discouragement, gossip, discord, bitterness, and worry to name a few.  Temptation may come our way at any time - usually when we least expect it, and always when we wander toward it (James 1.13-15)!

 

1 John 4.4 tells us, "greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world."  Philippians 4.13, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me."  I'm so glad that our Lord did not leave us without His power to battle Satan's temptations that come our way.  Just as physical exercise conditions the body, spiritual exercise conditions us to face spiritual battle (1 Timothy 4.7,8).  So stay in shape spiritually!  Ephesians 6.10 tells us to "be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might."