Northside Baptist Church

NBC Blog

Soul winning went very well, we had 4 saved. A-men.

Don’t forget to encourage your guests to attend Sunday, November 29 Family Day Sunday.

Today’s blog will be the life of Cathy!  Please read and thank God we have been changed.

Cathy’s Testimony

Hi, my name is Kathy and I would like to share with you my testimony.  I hope it will help someone you know gain victory over their enemy. As a young girl, I rebelled against all my authorities.  Like most young girls, my rebellion eventually led me into immorality.  I’m sad to say, I was only 14.  I never realized that my innocence would be lost for life.  With no dad in my life, I soon found out that this type of behavior could get me the attention I so desperately desired.  With a little makeup and my sister’s ID, I found that I could get more attention from older men at night clubs.  I was pretty, and they didn’t seem to care about my age.  I soon became fascinated with the night life.  But I wasn’t having fun yet!

Like all sin, the more I fed that appetite the stronger it got.  My entire teenage years were consumed with this lifestyle.  At 17 years of age, I began bartending.  I slept every day and partied every night.  Soon thereafter, I was introduced to using drugs;  this became everything to me.  I did not care about myself, much less anyone else.  I was just a party girl looking for my next good time.  But I wasn’t having fun yet!  I knew nothing about God and lived like there was no tomorrow.  I lost over ten years of tomorrows before I found out I was running out of them!

That is when the inevitable happened.  I became pregnant.  I quickly enrolled in a secular treatment program, but quit soon thereafter.  I sobered up for my pregnancy.  But after my child was born, I soon relapsed.  In desperation, I pulled out the Bible I had received while in that treatment program.  I began reading it.  But I closed it in frustration.  I didn’t understand anything.  I burst into tears over my feelings of hopelessness.  My life had become a nightmare.  I could not escape.  I feared I would never be a good mom.  No, I wasn’t having fun yet!

Just then, the doorbell rang.  With tear-stained cheeks, I answered the door and was greeted by two men from a church in the town where I live.  They handed me a brochure that showed me how to go to heaven, and invited me to attend their church.  I was shocked and knew without a doubt, I had been visited by men with a message from God.  That Sunday, I attended church for the first time in my life.  The next week, I accepted Christ as my Saviour.

When I got saved, I knew there was an immediate difference in my life!  My God-sized hole was filled with peace and a joy that I had never experienced before.  But no, I wasn’t having fun yet!  I desperately needed help to change my life.  This way of living was all I had ever known.  I did not know how to change.  Searching for help, I told my pastor and his wife the truth about my lifestyle, and begged them for any help that they could find.  I wanted to be set free from this captivity!

As they searched for answers to my problem, they came to know about the ministry of Reformers Unanimous.  In 2004, I attended my first RU meeting.  This program introduced me to the only Truth that makes free.  That Truth is Jesus Christ.  Since that time, God has set me free from my addictive behavior and has given me a life that is worth living!  Was it fun yet?  You bet!

After two years of developing my personal relationship with God, I began to work in the Ladies Residential Treatment Program in Rockford, Illinois.  I am finally a good mother to my daughter.  Though the glamour of my former lifestyle had long since faded, it had not released me from its grip.  The devil had made me work all my life in order to try to have fun.  Now, no matter how tough my adversity, I enjoy every day of my life.

Cathy

Preacher

NBC Blog

October 9, 2009

What a great evening of soul winning. We had 36 out soul winning with two saved. Amen

Our Teen Soul Winning Marathon is this Saturday at 8:30am and runs to 4:00pm, meeting at the end at church for testimony time. We will have pizza at the church ready for all of you so arrive back at 4:00PM. Don’t spend time eating lunch, just bring snacks if need be. There will be plenty of pizza for you at the end.

Let’s win the lost!!!! Let’s see 1 million saved around the world!

We are in the works planning our annual Christmas banquet. We hope you will be able to attend this year. We will have a special speaker to encourage us in this holiday season.

The Regional Youth Conference is being planned as we speak!

Bound For Gold

Jobs 23:10 “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold”.

There are times as a Christian that you have no control over. The circumstances that occur in our life, many of them we are powerless.

I think of a fine couple in our church that have a son that is being tested for a mental disability. They had no choice in this matter.

I think of our son who may have a learning disability, we had no choice in this matter.

I think of one of our Sunday School men who attend faithfully, he had no choice in the matter of being educable slow.

I am reminded about our teens who are raised in homes that are not Christian, and in the home authority speak against this church. These teens must deal in their heart and weigh so much to keep a spiritual mind, and even then it is tough.

In all these trials that we are dealing with we are in direct line with Job’s life. He had so much loss in his life that now Satan touched his health and well being.

I wonder this morning you are wondering why God has given you a problem, a plight, another worry to add to your 10 other worries. My friend of NBC you are being tried by God. Paul says that he finds it worthy to suffer for Christ. We get to see God in such a special way. We get to see Him as our strong tower of strength. He knows the way we take when things that we have no control over take us in a very different way. I think of one of our fine men who had a car accident. How his life is turned up-side-down with this tragedy but guess what, I saw him soul winning last night! Amen. Guess what? I saw that fine lady out soul winning. Guess what I? I saw these young children in the nursery while the parents are out soul winning. Guess what? I saw young teens out soul winning With all that is being dealt with in their lives. They continue to serve the Lord. Christian wait on God – continue to serve Him, continue to walk with Him through these trials that you did not choose nor wanted. The coming forth as gold will be very evident. Your child will be a blessing, your hurt will become a nugget, your demise will have a trial time and then we shall come forth as gold for His glory and honor.

It is time for us to realize that our powerless hurts bring us power in Christ.

Hang in there, I love you!

Preacher

Good morning to all in blog land of NBC.

Through the stewardship banquet we raised in promise giving the following amounts:

Missionaries: 7,346.00

Other: 3,556.00

Building Fund: 1,200.00

_____________

Total: 12,102.00

Now lets us fulfill and honor the offerings we promised.

PRAISE GOD

GLORY TO GOD!!

“Be Fulfilled”

I am still rejoicing about our Tuesday night stewardship banquet at Imperial Dynasty with Bro Corniciucs. What a time we had. The Lord is so good to us that He knows exactly what we need. There is nothing like being around God’s people and having the lasting enjoyment of being refreshed in the Lord which lasts for days after a Christ centered activity. The Spirit of God out lasts the spirit of this world. The enjoyment of this world is so shallow and so empty that it lasts only for a short season.

As your Pastor I want to clearly say I love everyone of you. I love to be around you. When we work for His glory and honor. I so enjoy the work we do together and the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. When the Apostle Paul said to Archippus in Colossians 4:17 to “take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it”. We need to complete or fulfill the work He has given us to perform. Let us complete tasks that are given to us to their completion.

I want NBC to be known to complete the tasks of our Lord Jesus Christ in every area that we put our hands to. In our personal life we have so many obligations to complete. We have our walk with God, we have our parental duties, we have our spouses, we have our Sunday School teaching priorities, we have our homes to clean, we have our jobs to focus on in the world, we have our church duties. These all need to be done with earnestness and to completeness. We also now have to fulfill the added task of our pledges.

NBC let us fulfill His tasks and desires so we will be fulfilled.

God Bless All and Thank You

Preacher

da

Good Morning,

This is a  beautiful day that the Lord hath made, let us rejoice as we live today in such a forgetful way to our flesh.

Another great evening of soul winning. We had 36 out and 10 saved.  I am so thankful for our people who want what God wants in seeing people saved.  May God bless you as we press forward.  The total this week so far of people getting saved is 21.

54 last month. Amen!

The Three Beware

Philippians 3:2

“Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision”.

We will take a little different direction this morning.  I want to explain the three warnings Paul tells us to beware.   “Beware”, are emphasized due to the Philippi church listening to these three groups of people.  Their influence was sadly evident and Paul noticed it.

Beware is a word that stresses to look with a wide eye gaze.  We are to behold or stand alert to what these individuals stand for and refuse their influence upon us.

Now Paul speaks about the three bewares of what we should be alerted to.

First we are to beware of dogs.  These dogs Paul is referring are not literal dogs but spiritual dogs.  What are dogs? They are those who hold others in reproach for their own inaction. This means that these people were likened to dogs because they could not be lead.  They could not submit to the authority given by God, the pastor.  They basically did their own thing in their own time.  They never got under the umbrella of authority in the church.  They never could be placed in any position because they think a different way.  They think like a wild dog.  They spend their time on useless things.   They leave and come as they please,  they have no master, they wonder,  they live off the spiritual life of others.  Many times they are full of excuses for their lack of commitment. Paul says beware of these people.  If you are not careful these people will rub off on your sold out Christianity.  They accomplish nothing.

Secondly we see we are to beware of evil workers. This word evil means worthless.  Paul speaks of evil workers as worthless workers.  Workers that do not walk with God.  Workers that are not reproducing themselves.  Workers that are a drag to others and to God.  They really don’t get it.  They are constantly down in the mouth.  Nothing good to say but has something to say about everything.  They just don’t want others to achieve or succeed for the Lord.  They accomplish nothing for His Kingdom .

Thirdly and lastly, Beware of the concision.  Now this is a very interesting word.  It is a word that we get, “To amputate”.  Paul is referring to those people that want to amputate people out of church.  In our day it is like kicking people out of church.  We want to amputate them so that we will have a clean church.  How sad and how far we have come to think that people, lives, are like trash.  Paul rebukes and scorns these Christians that are out to cleanse the church.  We need to be reminded that as Pastor, I have never kicked any, nor wanted to, out of this church.  We are not witch hunters that if you do not tow the line then out you go.  This is not even my church or any one else.  The church is built upon Jesus, Jesus alone.  We have no authority to kick anyone out of His church.

The only time anyone will get right with God will be because they were loved, forgiven, given another chance, or taught that something is wrong so do it this way or live is way.

No one will get back to God by throwing them out.  This action of “voting someone out of church” is against God’s divine purpose. We are to be known by our love not by fear.

All three groups of people Paul says to beware, be alert to these type’s people in the church of Philippi.  They will cause you to live in the flesh.  They are out to destroy lives not build lives.    –Beware-

May this be a help.

Have a great day!

Preacher