Author Archive for: James

Greetings! We had a great meeting in Heritage Baptist Church in Lawrence, KS with Pastor Scott Hanks. They put us up in this great prophet's apartment, so we got good rest, and were able to get to church in the morning in seconds. Sunday school went well. I taught the Teen Boys (9th – 12th grade), from Acts 17 and Paul on Mars Hill, and we talked about strategies for reaching the unchurched in an increasingly pagan culture. The services went well, and our presentation was well received. Pray for Heritage Baptist Church. They're trying to expand their main building, but some obstinate (translation: crooked) county inspectors are making them engage in all manner of bureaucratic gymnastics, and, every time they think they've achieved compliance, they move the finish line. So, be in prayer that God will move the heart of the king to stop this foolishness and let them build. They also have a growing printing ministry, and a bunch of books printed that need to be sold, so pray that those will sell.

Howdy! Our LORD's Day went well yesterday. Our meeting in Winfield, MO was in the evening, so we got to be in our home church. Yesterday was Heritage Sunday, where folks can wear old-fashioned clothes if they like (or jeans, if they like 😉 ). Afterwards, we had a pre-Thanksgiving meal, which was excellent as always. We sat and socialized with an Englishman who's been coming to our church for a bit, and it dawned on me as I asked about English holidays how unique America is in this respect: we celebrate everything! England has bank holidays, and Christmas and Easter, but with the exception of Remembrance Day (their version of Veteran's Day), they have no nationalistic holidays. We have multiple holidays that commemorate different aspects of being American. Thanksgiving reminds us of our ancestors and how they almost didn't make it through the first winter, but how, with some assistance from the Indians, and God's providence, they lived to have the first Thanksgiving, where they took the time to give thanks to God for His provision and care. We do likewise today, and have since Lincoln formally inaugurated the holiday back in 1863. We have the Fourth of July, where we put up patriotic decorations, have parades, barbecues (wouldn't be a holiday without food, right?), set off fireworks, and just generally glory in being an American. We have Veteran's Day to honor our soldiers. We have Father's and Mother's Day to honor our parents. We have President's Day, to honor our founding fathers. We have all these traditional, and uniquely American days of celebration, where we simply take pleasure in this great country in which God blessed us to let us be born, or become citizens. It really struck home to me how great we have it here, and how very thankful to God I am to be a citizen of the United States of America.