New Hope Baptist Church 

would like to invite you to

Harvest Sunday,  Oct. 16th at 11 a.m.

We will also be celebrating 

Pastor Appreciation Day. 

A covered dish dinner will follow the 

11 a.m. family worship service.

No Al, we are not talking about global warming or climate change, we are speaking about the warnings we have all been given in the Word of God.

The first word of the Gospel is REPENT!  Matthew 4:17  “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Is it not baffling to think we are more concerned about something that may happen over several thousand years?  What if the earth warms one degree? Big deal!  A sure thing is that all will someday die and stand before the eternal God.  We will be judged as law breakers!  If you doubt this take a quick look at the Ten Commandments.  The first is to love God with our heart, mind and soul.  Then, as Jesus put it, the second is like unto the first, love thy neighbor as thyself.  Not a good start for people that are set on self worship, greed and disobedience of every kind.  We are told not to steal or covet, lust or commit adultery.  Not a pleasant picture for any of us.  That is why the warning to repent and trust what Jesus Christ paid on the cross for all who will repent of their sins.  Instead of becoming angry, one should be grateful that there is a warning.  It is simple and clear, all of mankind needs to repent.  You have been warned!

The warning is to repent or perish.  How about you?  Will you repent and turn to Jesus?  It is the only hope for eternal life.

A Country Parson

Global Warning!

No Al, we are not talking about global warming or climate change, we are speaking about the warnings we have all been given in the Word of God.

The first word of the Gospel is REPENT!  Matthew 4:17  “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Is it not baffling to think we are more concerned about something that may happen over several thousand years?  What if the earth warms one degree?

Big deal!  A sure thing is that all will someday die and stand before the eternal God.  We will be judged as law breakers!  If you doubt this take a quick look

at the Ten Commandments.  The first is to love God with our heart, mind and soul.  Then, as Jesus put it, the second is like unto the first, love thy neighbor

as thyself.  Not a good start for people that are set on self worship, greed and disobedience of every kind.  We are told not to steal or covet, lust or commit

adultery.  Not a pleasant picture for any of us.  That is why the warning to repent and trust what Jesus Christ paid on the cross for all who will repent of their

sins.  Instead of becoming angry, one should be grateful that there is a warning.  It is simple and clear, all of mankind needs to repent.  You have been warned!

The warning is to repent or perish.  How about you?  Will you repent and turn to Jesus?  It is the only hope for eternal life.

Therefore, because of who God is and what He does we are to come into His presence with the service of corporate worship.  As we are gripped by the nature and purpose of worship, we then will be compelled to enjoy this privilege and enter into it wholeheartedly.  We minimize the privilege of worship.  We often fail to grasp or to continue to focus on this glorious privilege that God gives us to come by Christ Jesus into His presence.  There is no better privilege that belongs to us, no better work we do for God, but we often denigrate worship.

Some of you attend churches that do not have evening worship, while others of you may neglect the second service.  Why in the world, if all these privileges are attached to worship, would we omit evening worship?  Perhaps one cannot dogmatically assert from Scripture the necessity of the second service;   it is surely implied both in Psalm 92 and in the pattern of the morning and evening sacrifice.  Although I cannot make a dogmatic case, I can make a pragmatic one.  When we come into worship and go up into heaven in God’s presence, when the Word of God is preached by the lawfully ordained man of God and Christ Himself is speaking to us, why would we want to be anywhere else?  Why would we want to neglect the privilege of doing this twice on the Lord’s Day?

Some of you prefer to spend time on Sunday nights with your children to catechize them.  I had a friend who said, “I do not come to the evening service, because I am spending time with my children and catechizing them.:  You ought to catcheize your children, but why catchize them when Christ is speaking down the street and manifesting His presence?  Some of us dread worship.  You wake up Sunday morning - “Oh, no, it’s Sunday, and I’ve got to go to church.”  We need to be gripped with the beauty and glory of the privilege that is ours to enter His courts with thanksgiving.

Moreover, let us become zealous and jealous that God’s people will again discover the fullness of worship.  God is most glorified in Biblical corporate worship.  Let us pray and labor for the reformation of worship.  Let us support those churches committed to such worship.

1. Did I awake spiritual, and was I watchful in keeping my mind from wandering this morning when I was rising?

2. Have I this day got nearer to God in times of prayer, or have I given way to a lazy, idle spirit?

3. Has my faith been weakened by unwatchfulness, or quickened by diligence this day?

4. Have I this day walked by faith and eyed God in all things?

5. Have I denied myself in all unkind words and thoughts; have I delighted in seeing others preferred before me?

6. Have I made the most of my precious time, as far as I had light, strength and opportunity?

7. Have I kept the issues of my heart in the means of grace, so as to profit by them?

8. What have I done this day for the souls and bodies of God’s dear saints?

9. Have I laid out anything to please myself when I might have saved the money for the cause of God?

10. Have I governed well my tongue this day, remembering that in a multitude of words there wanteth not sin?

11. In how many instances have I denied myself this day?

12. Do my life and conversation adorn the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Let every man examine himself.

Five o’clock, and in that cold! The thought flashed through my mind, “Who on earth would turn up?” I went to my hotel. My alarm rang at four A.M. Rain was beating against my window. My first thought was, “The prayer meeting will be cancelled because of the rain.” I pulled the blanket up to my chin and tried to go to sleep again. I was unsuccessful. “You must at least keep your word and put in an appearance, even if there’s no one there but the minister,” I told myself. So at last I got dressed, rather reluctantly, and set off. It was not exactly encouraging to find that the taxi driver was asking double fare — still, I supposed he was entitled to the rate for night journeys.

The Presbyterian church came into view, a severe, very plain building with unglazed windows. Snow and rain blew into the church through the gaping frames. Yet again I told myself, “You’ve come here for nothing. No one attends prayer meetings at five o’clock in the morning in the cold, wet weather like this…” I braced myself against the wind and entered the church. What did I see? My eyes nearly popped out of my head — the whole place was crammed with people. There were no seats; the congregation was squatting or kneeling on straw mats. I was staggered. I went up to the platform, quite at a loss, and turned to the leading brethren. “What does this mean?” I asked. “The whole congregation can’t have been summoned to welcome one missionary!”

“This is our regular prayer meeting,” was the answer. “What, in the middle of the week?” I asked incredulously. “Not on Sundays when the members of the congregation have more time?” “We come together daily,” they explained to me. Again I felt my breath was taken away. “How many people are there present?” I enquired. “Almost 3000 –  the whole congregation.” I felt dazed, and asked no more questions.

One of the elders announced a hymn, and at once began to sing. There was no organ accompaniment, no hymn books; they had no musical instruments at all in this bleak building, which was more like a derelict factory than a church. Then they prayed, all 3000 members of the congregation at once. If I had been told of such an occurrence before, I would have dismissed it as fanatical zeal. But I could feel the harmony of the Holy Spirit in this prayer. There was no disorder; it invited no comparison with the noisy praying of the extremist sects. The people prayed for nearly an hour.

Then one of the elders asked me to give my address, adding, “A short one, please, not longer than an hour. These people have to go to work at seven o’clock.” A short address lasting an hour! The words echoed in my mind. In what country of the Western world could the minister preach for an hour at a prayer meeting? In any case, my sermon had quite gone out of my head while these people were praying. What had I to say to the brethren and sisters present? It was they who had preached a sermon to me before I ever opened my mouth. In a spiritual situation of this kind I seemed to myself utterly insignificant, tiny and pitiable. The congregation needed no missionary from the Western world — unless it were for the missionaries themselves to learn the true meaning of prayer.

Next day, when I was talking to a missionary, I put these thoughts into words. “What are we doing here?” I asked him. “We are quite superfluous!” He understood, and agreed with me. “We are here to be shown what a community living in the spirit of the New Testament is really like.”

“Pray without ceasing!”the Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 5: 17). I have not seen this biblical admonition carried out so thoroughly anywhere as in Korea. Perhaps it may be the same today in the revivalist regions of Indonesia.

I had not yet recovered from the shock of that first prayer meeting before I found myself attending the next one. I was drawn into the wake of this throng of people praying. For the first time I really understood the words of Acts 2: 46: “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple…” Daily! What have we come to in the Christian communities of the West? We pray for an awakening, and nothing happens — do we wonder at it?

At the third prayer meeting of the morning I asked the brethren, “How often in the week does your group come together to pray?” They replied, “Every day.” Three separate prayer groups meeting every morning! “How long has this custom been in force?” I asked. “Five years,” was the reply. I began doing sums: 365×5x3 comes to 5475 hours of prayer, each attended by 3000 people. Should we not expect such a prayer to reach the throne of God?

But I had not yet learnt everything; only in the course of a stay of several weeks did I gradually come to know all the wonderful secrets of this community of men and women of prayer. There was a prayer service at night. Every evening a group of some 100 Christians met to pray. The groups alternated, of course, with different people coming together each evening — and every night for five years, a hundred members of this congregation had been in prayer until dawn. Once a week, from Saturday to Sunday, a thousand Christians prayed all night long. For the first time I was brought to understand the words of Acts 12: 5: “Prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God.”

– Taken from Rene Monod, The Korean Revival, pages 32-35

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II Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked way; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” We need to see prayerlessness as a wicked sin that can destroy our land.  So, the question must be asked, do you pray?  It is the calling of all true believers.  John Bunyan said, “The reason one does not pray is because they are not saved.”  

Lord teach us to pray! 

Pastor Don Rice

There are some of them, Father, that will not have mercy on themselves. How have we preached to them and laboured for them. O God, thou knowest that I lie not. How have I striven for them that they might be saved! But the heart is too hard for man to melt, and the soul is made of iron too hard for flesh and blood to render soft.

O God, O God of Isreal, thou canst save. There is the pastor’s hope, there is the minister’s trust. He cannot, but thou canst, Lord. They will not come but thou canst make them willing in the day of thy power. They will not come unto thee that they may have life; but thou canst draw them and then they shall run after thee. They cannot come; but thou canst give them power; for though “no man cometh except the Father draw him,” yet if he draw him, then he can come.

O Lord, for another year has thy servant preached — thou knowest how. It is not for him to plead his cause for thee….But now, O, Lord, we beseech thee, bless our people. Let this our church, thy church, be still knit together in unity; and this night may they commence a fresh era of prayer. They are a praying people, blessed be thy name, and they pray for their minister with all their hearts. O Lord, help them to pray more earnestly. May we wrestl;e in prayer more than ever, and besiege thy throne until thou makest Jerusalem a praise, not only here, but everywhere.

But, Father, it is not the church we weep for; it is not the church we groan for; it is the world. O Faithful Promiser, hast thou not promised to thy Son that he should not die in vain? Give him souls, we beseech thee, that he may be abundantly satisfied. Hast thou not promised that thy church shall be increased? O increase her, increase her. And hast thou not promised that thy ministers shall not labour in vain? For thou hast said, “as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, even so shall thy word be, it shall not return unto thee void.”

Let not the word return void tonight; but now may thy servant in the most earnest manner, with the most fervent heart, burning with love to his Saviour, and with love to souls, preach once more the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Come, Holy Spirit, we can do nothing without thee. We solemnly invoke thee, great Spirit of God! thou who didst rest on Abraham, on Isaac and on Jacob; thou who in the night visions speaketh unto men. Spirit of the Prophets, Spirit of the Apostles, Spirit of the Church, be thou our Spirit this night, that the earth may tremble, that souls may rejoice thogether to praise thy name. Unto Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the dread Supreme, be everlasting praise. Amen.

Prayer prayed by C.H. Spurgeon at a Watch Night service in 1856 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, England. Spurgeon was 22.