Antioch News - January 2005

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NEWS AND VIEWS

• Much of the news in recent days has been about the earthquake and tsunami that hit Indonesia and other countries in that part of the world. Please pray that God would use this tragedy for opportunities to take the hope of the gospel to these people. We thank the Lord for the financial help that being sent to these people. However, we must always remember that their first need is to know Jesus Christ as Saviour.

• Some skeptics have used this tragedy in Asia as proof that God does not exist or that perhaps He is not good. I find it interesting that they have no use for him when their lives are going well, but want to blame Him for the problems when things turn to the worse. Whatever the answer, we must realize that God allowed this catastrophe to occur. He could have stopped it and did not. God’s ways are not our ways – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD” (Isaiah 55:8).

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Monday, January 17, 2005 – Faith Independent Baptist Church, pastored by Jeffrey Hensley, has invited the Antioch Baptist Church choir to come and sing at their special Preaching Meeting this evening. Pastor Reagan will be preaching. Services begin at 7:00PM and we encourage all who can to come for the services this evening. Faith Independent Baptist Church is located at 1328 Stair Avenue in Knoxville – 524-6200. They will also have services on Tuesday evening.
• Thursday, January 20, 2005 – Scripture Baptist College registration at 6-8PM.
• Monday, January 24, 2005 – First night of classes for spring semester for Scripture Baptist College
• February 13-18, 2005 – Special meeting at Antioch Baptist Church with Evangelist Ken McDonald. Brother McDonald has been with us several times in the past and the Lord is especially blessing his ministry right now. He will be with us Sunday morning and evening and Monday through Friday at 7:30PM each evening.
• May 23 through June 3, 2005 – Mt. Carmel Bible Institute trip to Israel. Pastor Reagan will be the guest teacher and speaker for this trip. There are still available spots for those who would like to come on this trip.
• June 16-18, 2005 – Combined King James Writers’ Conference and Baptist History Tour here in Knoxville, Tennessee. Special speakers include Doug Stauffer, Terry Booher, and Jeff Faggart. Preaching Thursday and Friday evenings. Writers’ conference during the day on Friday. East Tennessee Baptist History Tour on Saturday. More details to follow. Mark your calendars.

CHURCH MINISTRIES

• Ladies’ Auxiliary met for first time on Thursday evening, January 13. Eleven ladies came out and prepared visitation packets, stamped tracts, prepared welcome letters, and enjoyed each other’s fellowship. We thank the Lord for the work they accomplished. In a day and age when most church meetings for ladies degenerate into silly and useless nonsense, the ladies of Antioch came together to serve in the joy of the Lord.
• The Men’s Prayer Meeting at 8:00AM on Sunday and the Ladies’ Prayer Meeting at 5:30PM on Sunday continue on a weekly basis. These meetings are certainly much of the cause for the blessings we have been seeing recently in the church. We are praying for others to get the burden to join us in prayer at these times.
• The Men’s Prayer Meeting begins at 8:00AM on Sunday mornings. We open with a short prayer for our time of prayer. This is followed by about five minutes of a devotional message—usually dealing with prayer. We then go over a portion of our written requests and open up for additional prayer requests. Finally, we get into groups of two or three and pray with one another. The murmur of prayers going up to God across the church auditorium is a blessed sound. The prayer time is usually through by 8:30AM. Most go back home for breakfast, study, or whatever else they have to do before church. We normally have 5 to 7 men out to pray. Pastor Reagan is praying for 10 faithful men to recognize the need to pray with us every Sunday morning.

MISSIONS

• Most often, Antioch Baptist Church takes missionaries on at $30 a month and then raises that to $50 as opportunity arises. We just took on three new missionaries at $30 a month: Daryl Coates to Norway, Angel Parrish to the women’s prisons of America, and Mark Harwood to Alberta, Canada. We also raised our present $30 missionaries to $40 and our $40 missionaries to $50 a month.
• Our commitment to missions raised by a total $200 a month. In a meeting with some of the men, the question was raised as to whether or not we could afford this amount. We decided that the Lord could do it and that He had shown the money to be there. However, we received another assurance from the Lord that this was right. Exactly one week after our initial meeting, we received a card from someone outside of the church. It included a check to be put in our missions account. It was for exactly $200. That night the church voted to increase our monthly support of missions for that amount.
• Shortly after the tsunami, we received this from our missionary in India: “By the grace of God we are all fine. But it was one of worst hit in the recent years. As far as I know, all our churches are safe and sound. All the east coast was hit by at least 10 feet to 60 height waves. But the miracle is we have a church in Visakhapatnam in a small village on the sea coast called Yarada village. The church is built on the beach actually it is 100 feet from the water. The water on the coast near the church did not raise even a single inch. Praise the Lord. Pray for those who are affected. More than 7000 people died in India mostly the fishermen community. Pray for their rehab. We have 4 churches in a fishermen community. I still need to hear from them.” Please remember these people in prayer.

BIBLE SCHOOL

• Bible College here in Knoxville starts up again Monday and Tuesday evenings on January 24-25, 2005. We will have registration for classes on Thursday, January 20, 2005 from 6PM to 8PM. We have several continuing students and are hearing from potential new and returning students. Help us pray that this will be a semester especially blessed by God. Satan does not want God’s servants to be trained in the use of their weapons. We have seen greater spiritual battles in this ministry than in most others. Please make it a point to pray for the school and its students.
• Classes in Knoxville for this Spring include:
  • Methods of Bible Study using Zechariah by David Reagan at 6-8PM on Monday. Zechariah is considered by many to be the most difficult book of prophecy in the Old Testament. We will be using this book to learn how to approach Bible study. This class will have much more student participation and discussion than most of our classes. Come ready to learn and ready to participate.
  • Gospel of John by David Reagan at 8-10PM on Monday. This course will continue the in-depth study of John. It begins with John chapter nine. One of the first problems it will address is how the disciples thought that the man of John nine could have been born blind because he had sinned. We usually have several specials topics like this in every class.
  • Return From Captivity by Karl Lohman at 6-8PM on Tuesday. This course looks at Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai, and Malachi in chronological order. Most people know very little about this time period in the Bible. There is a lot of great history, prophecy, and spiritual application here. Brother Lohman always brings out wonderful truths in his teaching.
  • Colossians by Drew Ray at 8-10PM on Tuesday. Last semester, Brother Ray taught the book of Galatians. Colossians is an excellent book to follow. Many important doctrinal and practical truths are to be found here. This should be a great course.
• We have our first online course up on the website at www.learnthebible.org. It can be found by following the navigation button at the top labeled “LTB University.” This is for Learn the Bible University. It will operate differently from our local college. But it will also be free of charge. We have a heart to reach out to the people around the world who do not have the means to pay for a Bible education. Please help us pray that we will be able to get more courses up.

PREACHING/TEACHING

• Pastor Reagan continues to go through the Book of Ecclesiastes on Sunday evenings. He is presently in the fifth chapter of the book.
• We have had several good messages recently on Wednesday evenings from men like Drew Ray, John McKinney, and David Heady. We appreciate their good Bible messages.
• Recent Sunday morning messages by Pastor Reagan have included:
  • The Opening of the Ears from Deuteronomy 15:12-18
  • The Dayspring From on High from Job 38:12-15
  • Go For the Gold from 1Corinthians 9:24-27
  • Raising Children God’s Way from Proverbs 22:6
  • Crossing the Line with God from Numbers 20:1-11

WEB SITE

• The Lord keeps blessing the website. Last week we had the single-day record (over 6300 page hits) and the weekly record (over 30,000 page hits).
• Here are some recent comments from visitors to the site:
  • I just wanted to say thank you for all the effort you have put into your web site. I have enjoyed it very much, and I will be back. God Bless you in your endeavours to teach His word.
  • Thank you for your most excellent web site. I thoroughly enjoy your audio sermons, and always learn from them. I also love to read the answers you give to people with Bible questions. You always answer with the Bible and your explanations are very insightful. I thank God for ministries such as yours, and Pastors such as you and my Pastor. This Internet ministry you have here, brother is a great work. There are, I am positive, souls being won for Christ because of your efforts. You have helped inspire me to take Bible College courses. It really is a book worthy of study and really is alive. I attribute that partly to you my brother, for your messages are always interesting and to the point. I doubt you have much trouble with people sleeping in Church. I just wanted to tell you thanks, and keep up the good work.
  • Thanks for your support. My teenage boys find it fun to study and discuss the study as we get them. Especially since moving to the country I get home late and tired. The study is what they use and it has been fun studying with them and listening as they take over the study. Their views on some are very helpful to know as a parent.
  • I am using your web site - along with other scripturally based web sites and my own library - to assist with obtaining background information for a Bible study that I teach at the Penn State Mont Alto, PA campus each week. It is a mixed "religious background" group, but they desire to learn and I believe that I have been led by God to help them learn the truth of the scripture. It is a wonderful opportunity, which I thank God for, to help young adults learn about God's truths and see them grow.
  • Thank you for your ministry, it helps me in my personal growth as a Christian. Actually i'm a filipino pastor and what i learned from you, i taught it to my congregation.
  • I wonder if a young man from Egypt contacted you I met him on line and he told me about this site. You see, he is from a Muslim family, but is now calling himself a Christian...he said he is out of darkness and into light. We have been reading the bible together from this site....I was surprised after he asked me what bible I used that he was glad it was KJV. I have been "raised" in a KJV Baptist church. He gave me his testimony...He lives in a "100% Muslim town.... there are towns of course with mixed population. One day a man from his town told him that he became a Christian. This surprised him, why would he divulge that information. But he got to wonder what the bible said that would make this man leave Islam. He is downloading books of the bible and hiding them in a "cushion" to listen to every chance he gets. I wanted to know how he learned so much, and he introduced me to your site. Just wanted to tell you. When I assured him that there will be more than me praying for him, he said he wanted prayer for his family.
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