Andy Goode

Finally....I am Free to Write Again.

2011-03-17T08:08:00.000-07:00

In April of 2010, I posted on this blog page, a few words about why we came to NWA and as I look back seeing what I wrote, I am amazed with GOD and how HE works.

Since that time many things have happened and only now have I found the time to check back in on the blog. In reading a previous post I realized it was written just before God gave us the reality of a Marshallese church.

In May of 2010 we began meeting in a home for Bible Study, today we are meeting on the Springdale Campus of Cross Church with a weekly church service. Also our members are tasked with the privilege of translating and recording the first ever Marshallese version of The Jesus Film.

Soon our Jesus Film project will be complete and premiering here in Springdale followed by a premiere in the Marshall Islands. If God provides the resources, Patty and I hope that we both can be there in the Marshall Islands when the Marshallese people see this powerful evangelistic tool for the first time and hear the dialogue in their own language. God uses the Jesus Film all around the world and we know many will be saved here in Springdale and in the Marshall Islands.

We have seen people saved, baptized and even married in our short term as Cross Church Marshallese. We have developed new relationships and found many new friends who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. So what we only hoped to do in the previous post, God has now done and allowed us to take part in his work.

Truly there is not enough time to recount here all that God is doing in the Marshallese people in our church. I hope you will be a part of this effort too , simply by praying for us. We meet on Sundays at 1:30 p.m. CST.

Also you will see on the page that our family and some of the Cross Church family experienced our first Russian Christmas play. Also, in the previous post, I mentioned that we wanted to reach the 66 people groups that live in our area. Some of those groups are Russian speakers from various countries in the former Soviet Union. Some of them are already Christians, most of them are not. So please pray for our work there as well, which is also progressing.

We give Jesus Christ all the glory and ask that you praise Him, and pray for us.

In Christ,
Andy, Patty, Azlee, Avery, Adler and Anson Goode

Does Jail Ministry Really Work?

2010-05-17T05:34:00.000-07:00

Here is one example out of many that we have from WCLEJC. I am pasting Chaplain Earl Adam's God story of the month here on my blog so that you can read the whole thing and know that our ministry here bears fruit that remains.

"Five years ago I baptized a detainee named Joe. Three months later Joe went to prison. While in prison he continued to read and study his Bible. Many months later he was released from prison. He went home to his wife and children. They began to attend Inside Out Ministry Church. I preached at this church recently. As I entered the church, Joe recognized me. He ran toward me. He gave me a big bear hug as he shouted Praise the Lord! While I preached there were many Amens and Praise the Lord coming from Joe’s pew. After church Joe’s wife asked if she could speak to me. Of course, I said yes. She said, “Thank you for your Jail Ministry. Thank you for giving my husband back to me. Thank you giving my children’s Dad back to them.” Joe came over and put his arm around his wife. He said, “I’ve been praying. I think God wants me to be a Jail Minister.” I prayed with Joe and his family before I left the church. A few weeks ago Joe came to Sunday baptism at the jail. After baptizing several men, Joe said, “Chaplain, can I say something to these men?” He said, “Men, five years ago today, I was baptized in this room and in this baptism tub. God has changed my life. He will change your life too.”
Yesterday, Joe came to the jail and went to Work Release with one of our trained Jail Ministers. Yes, Joe is training to be a Jail Minister. AMAZING!"

Now, you see the fruit, it is time to bear fruit of your own. Be inspired today to invest the gospel of Jesus Christ into someone. Go and make a disciple today, but realize it takes more than sharing the gospel to make disciples. If you need our help call on us, that is why we are here.

Bear fruit by praying and bear fruit by giving. Our jail ministry needs more partners. We can expand the ministry but we need partners that want to bear fruit through this ministry by making this ministry possible. Can't partner with us financially right now? We will take your gift of time and talent, volunteer with us. What i God calling you to do? Do it!

Get This Idea in Your Heart First and Your Head Later

2010-04-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

One thing I know, God is never late, never slack, and He is always faithful. God is speaking to someone who will either answer this or relay this message to another who will answer the call.

You have to get the idea in your heart before you get the idea in your head. The idea is this: God may move you in order to use you. Your heart tied to the heart of God will see the need and your head will make excuses as to why you cannot repsond with your heart.

Your heart wants to proclaim the Kingdom of God but the ideas in your head leave you silent and useless in your chair or on your sofa. The birth pangs are here, the time is imminent, spend the last days however many or few there are abandoned to proclaiming the Kingdom of God.

Find out where God wants you to be and go there. Find out what God wants you to do and do it. Someone reading this will either respond or tell someone to read it and thye will respond. Hear me, you have 168 hours a week. If you are working 50-60 hours you still have some time to serve.

We need bi-vocational ministry workers. Are you called? Is God tearing you up about stepping out in faith. Do you realize you are a missionary. Every Christian is called to be a witness, let us help you polish your skills as a missionary, as a way of life.

Someone will read this and realize they need to find a job in Arkansas, move here and help us reach the 65 people groups. they will step out of the boat, walk by faith and find God to be enough. Do you want your life to count for something besides a job and a flat screen?

See the pictures I posted todayon FB, there were 40 kids and 5 adults who gathered to hear me share the gospel....YES I SAID THE GOSPEL. They didn't reject me, they welcomed me. They didn't mock me, they thanked me. They didn't ask me to leave, they asked me when would I return.

Get this, I had to say: "I don't know". Why? I have to find volunteers who can go back every week. I can reach many more people if I get volunteers equipped and started than if I pick one spot and stay there. I am calling you to a vision. God is working, the time is short. If you are not called then ignore me, if you are called how dare you ignore God.

Pray, search, look, and when you know it's God and not some weird idea, step out of the boat. Maybe you don't want to find another job and relocate..ok start reaching people where you are. Don't just sit there. Proclaim the Kingdom of God fulfill the Great Commission.

Need a pep talk or a start, bring your mission team here, we will get you going. Looking for where to go and serve God but didn't know where, come on and see if God affirms you to come here.

Once you get the idea in your heart that you want to tell people about Jesus that want to hear about Jesus; that are not being told about Jesus, your head can't talk you out of what is in your heart.

There may be errors in this, I don't have time to sit around and blog, but for whomever this was intended, contact me today 479.236.6165 and let me get you started serving or preparing to serve. You can work a job and pay rent anywhere, but I need to you work a job, pay rent and volunteer with me here. Fulfill the missional calling in oyur life. Let's go!

I know God had me post this today, so I know it was for somebody. Have questions, need help coping with the call of God? Contact me, let's do this because the hour draws near when we cannot do these things any longer, time will be up.

Who will He send? Who will Go?

Mission Northwest Arkansas

2010-04-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

God blessed my family with a new adventure. For the first time my kids live outside the city limits of Albany, Georgia. We live in a beautiful place, God created some major artwork in Northwest Arkansas.

So what are we doing in NWA? I am so glad you asked. We are running Mission Northwest Arkansas for First BAptist Springdale and the Church at Pinnacle Hills.

How can you pray for us? Thanks for asking. First, think of us as missionaries to NWA and if you want to get technical think of me as a missional strategist. I am asking God for the wisdom, the human resources and the annoiting of God to reach the 66 people groups that live here.

We want to start a baptist church for the Marshalleese people who live here. Please pray for favor with the Marshaleese people and for the effort to be a success to the glory of God.

We want to start more Spanish churches and more Cowboy churches. These models are reaching people here but we need more. Pray for the human resources to make this happen and for favor with the people and the power of God.

Pray that God will give me favor with the pastors and people of struggling churches as we come alongside smaller churches to help them thrive and be Great Commission churches.

Pray that my language skills in Spanish will continue to increase, as I am fluent in conversation but have along way to go to be able to teach or preach completely in Spanish.

Iam asking that you not see me merely as an associate min. of missions for FBC Springdale and CPH but see our whole family as lead missionaries in Northwest Arkansas.

Pray for our churches and our church staff. Pray for Pastor Ronnie Floyd and the GCR taskforce.

Pray for Central Baptist Albany, GA.

Pray for Greenbriar Church, Albany, GA.
Pray for Covenant Life Church , Tampa FL.

Thanks for praying!

Maturity in the Christian Life

2009-11-15T09:30:00.000-08:00

What does this mean:"Maturity in the Christian Life" it means many things all of which we must value and evaluate and I want to list here some points by which we consider what spiritual maturity means:

1. We accept the fact that we fail, or sin, but we are not threatened by this fact, nor do we make excuses because of this fact, lest we must try to justify our sin some how.

2. When we hear preaching that convicts we do not bow up at the preacher or shoot the messenger. We own what we should own and we repent, desiring to change.

3. We desire not to focus on ourselves but on pleasing God and our worldview reflects this truth and our actions reflect this worldview.

4. We develop a heart of compassion towards others, "Jesus wept", remember the shortest verse in the Bible.

5. We disdain man centered theology and man centered worship and ideas of worship.

6. We hide God's word in our heart and we meditate on His word , day and night.

7.We become concerned about our children and our grandchildren in their spiritual journey and we are passionate about helping them gain spiritual depth.

8.We try to live a life of purpose for the Kingdom and not one of self indulgence whereby we sacrifice rather than become gluttons of comfort and pleasure. The desire of our heart is to never be a stumbling block but to be a facilitator, an encourager and an example of living for Christ.

9. We don't use crutches or lame excuses for spiritual apathy and decline in our ouwn spiritual fervor, we repent and seek to be different.

10. We do not adpot principles, philosophies or ideas of this world and try to baptize them into a hybrid of something that the bride of Christ should ingest. There should be no half baked ideas, or unbiblical theologies but we should develop a biblical theology through being disciples ourselves in the power of the Holy Spirit.

11. We don't tolerate error in the church.
12. We don't tolerate sin in the church, the body of Christ.
13. We do not tolerate unbiblical leadership in the church.
14. We don't tolerate the few trying to control a church with their agenda.
15. We want to see people come out from hiding and desire to be changed by the power of God.
16. We desire to give and to worship God way beyond a tithe. The tithe yes! and we give above a tithe and we recognize that every good thing comes from God and belongs to God and we give of our time and our talents also.
17. We are not offended by messages on giving and we know God loves a cheerful giver.
18. We believe that Christianity is life and that we are alive in Christ with unspeakable JOY!
19. We love our spouse putting Christ first then our spouse and we understand stand to truly love your spouse in to serve them expecting nothing in return.
20.We desire to be with other believers and to share the testimonies of God's work in our lives.

I Thank You For Your Support

2009-04-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

Wow….what a Sunday! Central I commend you for receiving my friend Coach Rock Knapp and I commend you for treating him so well. Thanks for the response to the Curing Kids Cancer cause and I really appreciate that so many of you will be coming along to help at Rock’s Run. There are many things that I am grateful for that occurred this past Sunday.
I appreciate the men who showed up to pray before the service and I want to extend the invitation to any who want to join us. We will pray at 9:30 each Sunday morning in the sanctuary. No one is asked to pray aloud but to pray for our services, against distractions and for God’s power.
Speaking of prayer, we are over due to get the prayer ministry of this church going. We should have people praying during the services on a rotation basis. We should be building toward a strong intercessory prayer ministry. We will never have the power until we first become people of prayer.
Also, I want to thank so many of you for serving and being so gracious when a service goes longer than usual. My first thanks is to the people who serve in the nursery and in children’s church. I am thanking you each and every one because I am grateful.
I wish that we could all be grateful. I hope we can come to a place where we: “can scarce take it in…” how beautiful God’s love is to those who have seen His love through the eyes of a repentant sinner saved by grace.
What do I have to say for why a service goes longer than some would like? Well I guess we could have told the two adults and one child that were coming for baptism that they were not important and that would have saved 15 minutes. We could have cut out some songs that praised God and told God we didn’t have time to praise Him. That would have saved another 15 minutes depending on how many songs we cut.
Also, I could have spoken less than what God had given to me to speak and thereby told God we didn’t have time to listen to His message, for a 10 minute gain. I believe the response to the message validates that it came from Him. We could have told those who came forward in response to the message that they do not matter and their desire to honor God with their life is not important.
We could have told Coach Rock that curing kid’s cancer is not a worthy cause and we are not willing to help and saved 15 minutes. That would be telling my friend Coach Rock who may not be healed of two terminal cancers that we could care less and that his testimony of what God has shown him didn’t matter to us and we would also be saying to God once again that we only care about ourselves.
If we add up all the saved time that would be 15+15+10+15, we could have had a service 55 minutes shorter than we had yesterday. This means if we started at our normal time of 10:55 we would have finished at 11:35.
That would be a service only 40 minutes long and a church with no baptisms, little praise, a short message and no regard for God or anyone other than one’s own self. NO THANKS! I would rather God correct me for keeping people too long than have God rebuke me for shallow, self-centered and unwilling to worship Him.
To be fair, Justin, Daniel and I will always seek not to keep you any longer than God intends. However, when honoring God requires more, I will not be the one dismissing people before it is time. Allow me to say this because I have preached in many churches where they wanted 3 points and a poem in a 15 minute message after they sang one hymn standing and two sitting down, read off the birthday list, the gossip column and wasted as much time as possible to edge the preacher out from being able to deliver the Word of God; those churches are either dead or dying and we are neither one. We are a resurrected church serving the Resurrected Savior Jesus Christ.
I will gladly receive anyone wanting to complain about the length of yesterday’s service and I will not be offended. After you are finished with your compliant, I hope you will not be offended if I share with you the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how you can be saved and begin an abundant life walking in victory over sin and sorrow. Then you can lay down your idols and your bitterness. : )

I love you each and every one; I love Jesus more!
Andy Goode
Acts 20:24

Why Missions?

2009-02-13T11:42:00.000-08:00

Understand that busyness is not a spiritual gift, yet I have been so busy with ministry that I have not been able to write the daily devotion for the mission team. So once again Iam borrowing today from Spurgeon's "Faith's Check Book. I trust God will use it to prepare you for the journey.

Why Missions? we have to step away from the daily and ordinary things of life and get focused on what really matters. It helps to go and worship in an unfamiliar place as a servant of Christ in a foreign land.

Feb. 13 BLESSED IN THE FIELD

"Blessed shalt thou be in the field" Deut. 28:3

So was Isaac blessed when he walked therein at eventide to meditate. How often has the Lord met us when we have been alone! The hedges and the trees can bear witness to our joy. We look for such blessedness again.

So was Boaz blessed when he reaped his harvest, and his workmen met him with benedictions. May the Lord prosper all who drive the plough! Every farmer may urge this promise with God, if indeed he obeys the voice of the Lord God.

We go to the field to labor as father Adam did; and since the curse fell on the soil through the sin of Adam the first, it is a great comfort to find a blessing through Adam the second.

We go to the field for exercise, and we are happy in the belief that the Lord will bless that exercise, and give us health, which we will use to His glory.

We go to the field to study nature, and there is nothing in a knowledge of the visible creation which may not be sanctified to the highest uses by the divine benediction.

We have at last to go to the field to bury our dead; yea, others will in their turn take us to God's acre in the field: but we are blessed, whether weeping at the tomb, or sleeping in it.

— Faith's Checkbook

MeridaTeam Devotional #1

2009-02-03T05:35:00.000-08:00

This (below) is taken from a devotion by Charles Spurgeon for today. Consider where we are going and what we will need to accomplish His will on the mission field. What is it that you need from God, a fresh work in your life. Never take this out of context to believe that God will give us things we do not really need but do take it to heart that God didn't withhold the most precious thing from us so why would He withhold anything?

What you need is fresh work from Him in your life, that changes you. Will you believe that He will do that even before we depart for Merida? Then what treasure you might you add to that in the spiritual realm?

Feb. 3 HE FREELY GIVES

"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all thing?" Rom. 8:32

If this is not a promise in form, it is in fact. Indeed, it is more than one promise, it is a conglomerate of promises. It is a mass of rubies, and emeralds, and diamonds, with a nugget of gold for their setting. It is a question which can never be answered so as to cause us any anxiety of heart. What can the Lord deny us after giving us Jesus? If we need all things in Heaven and earth, He will grant them to us: for if there had been a limit anywhere, He would have kept back His own Son.

What do I want today? I have only to ask for it. I may seek earnestly, but not as if I had to use pressure, and extort an unwilling gift from the Lord's hand; for He will give freely. Of His own will, He gave us His own Son. Certainly no one would have proposed such a gift to Him. No one would have ventured to ask for it. It would have been too presumptuous. He freely gave His Only-begotten; and, O my soul, canst thou not trust thy heavenly Father to give thee anything, to give thee everything? Thy poor prayer would have no force with Omnipotence if force were needed; but His love, like a spring, rises of itself, and overflows for the supply of all thy needs.

— Faith's Checkbook
Now ask God to do something new in you!
ATG

The Curious Case of Living for Christ

2009-01-15T07:49:00.000-08:00

I never see “R” movies except for The Passion of the Christ. I did see a PG-13 recently that truly made think about some things that I can relate to spiritually and hopefully you can relate to these things as well.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button reminded me of Forrest Gump I later discovered that the screen play for both movies were written by the same person...duh.
Anyway as I was reading Ecclesiastes I was reminded of Benjamin Button. Although there is a hint of reincarnation and a poor representation of good morals in the film; I learned from the film something we can all learn from Ecclesiastes.
We need to take time to live and take time to love. Unlike the film, sex should only occur within marriage and I will always stand for the principles in God’s word. I take away from Button a reminder that I need to take time to love on my kids even more as they are a precious gift.
I need to take more time to just be with my wife and I need to take more time to fulfill the actual service to others part of ministry and the actual spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I need to make the things that matter for an eternity and that will glorify God my highest priority in life.
Our lives on planet earth are slowly used up. Sublimation; our life is but a vapor or as you will see below becomes just smoke. In Christ, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, but these things we hold dear for ourselves will soon pass away.
Love the Lord your God with all your soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your family and love God and other enough to tell other about Jesus. After all that is the only reason you are still here on planet earth. Consider the passage below from God’s word , I chose to present it in the paraphrase: “The Message” for effect.
Ecclesiastes 4:1-16 (MSG) 1 Next I turned my attention to all the outrageous violence that takes place on this planet—the tears of the victims, no one to comfort them; the iron grip of oppressors, no one to rescue the victims from them. 2 So I congratulated the dead who are already dead instead of the living who are still alive. 3 But luckier than the dead or the living is the person who has never even been, who has never seen the bad business that takes place on this earth. 4 Then I observed all the work and ambition motivated by envy. What a waste! Smoke. And spitting into the wind. 5 The fool sits back and takes it easy, His sloth is slow suicide. 6 One handful of peaceful repose Is better than two fistfuls of worried work— More spitting into the wind. 7 I turned my head and saw yet another wisp of smoke on its way to nothingness: 8 a solitary person, completely alone—no children, no family, no friends—yet working obsessively late into the night, compulsively greedy for more and more, never bothering to ask, "Why am I working like a dog, never having any fun? And who cares?" More smoke. A bad business. 9 It's better to have a partner than go it alone. Share the work, share the wealth. 10 And if one falls down, the other helps, But if there's no one to help, tough! 11 Two in a bed warm each other. Alone, you shiver all night. 12 By yourself you're unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn't easily snapped. 13 A poor youngster with some wisdom is better off than an old but foolish king who doesn't know which end is up. 14 I saw a youth just like this start with nothing and go from rags to riches, 15 and I saw everyone rally to the rule of this young successor to the king. 16 Even so, the excitement died quickly, the throngs of people soon lost interest. Can't you see it's only smoke? And spitting into the wind?

Yucatan Mission Team 2009

2009-01-12T13:39:00.000-08:00

Mission Work proves to be more rewarding in the spiritual sense than words can describe. Not that I feel good about doing something for someone; it is not that at all. The sesne of family that I get from being with the other Christians. Jesus gave His life and rose again for that sense of family.

Why should we wait until Hevane to experience fellowship with our brothers and sisters from other parts of the word? We are God's children in Christ.

Many of you wanted to know about the trip to the Yucatan. follow the blog and I will keep you updated and post ne pictures along the way. If possible Iam going to put up a slideshow of several pictures soon.

Biblical Truth on The Shack

2008-11-24T13:21:00.000-08:00

Dr. Alan Day is a pastor I highly respect and when i wanted to speak out on the book: The Shack, i found that Dr. Day had said all that needed to be said and he said it better than I could have said it. So here it is read it and adhere to it because he is right.

Commentary on the Shack by Alan Day

Dr. Alan Day is the senior pastor of Edmond, Okalhoma's First Baptist Church, and my wife, Robbie, and I are delighted that he is our pastor. I have the privilege of serving as our church's evangelism coordinator under his leadership. He is an outstanding theological scholar and has wise spiritual insight. He embraces the Bible as God's fully sufficient inspired word. Recently, he wrote a review of a book that is getting an unusual amount of attention, The Shack by William P. Young. With his permission, I am glad to share his thoughts with you. They first appeared in our church newsletter, The Clarion, on August 20, 2008. -WB

Since several of you have asked my opinion of the novel, THE SHACK, I decided to give a brief review of the book in this article. There is a continuing stream of favorable reviews, and many are claiming that the book has revolutionized their lives.

The main character of the novel, Mack Philips, has lost his daughter. She has been murdered, her bloodied dress found in an isolated shack. Four years later Mack receives an invitation from God to spend time with the Trinity in the very shack where the dress was found. He goes back to the shack and meets the Trinity. Papa is a large, African American woman. Jesus is a carpenter, and a rather homely one; and the Holy Spirit is an Asian woman.

The attraction of THE SHACK is its emotional appeal to those who are struggling with the most common of human emotions-grief and sorrow and anger and disappointment. And that's the danger. It is so emotionally captivating that the theological content can be absorbed unconsciously.

I can only list the most glaring theological concerns. Even though there are positive features, these can never redeem a book so full of error.

On p. 31, we learn that God is identical to the Great Spirit of Native American thought.

On p. 65, we learn that special revelation is still going on and that the Bible did not complete the revelation of God. "God's voice had been reduced to paper" is how he describes the traditional evangelical position.

On p. 100, we learn that Jesus did his miracles only as a man depending upon God, not as the God-man who had authority in himself to forgive sins, heal the sick, open blind eyes, or for that matter, to obliterate the universe with the word of his power. But the Apostle John calls Jesus' miracles "signs" and organized them to show that these miracles proved his divine nature. He begins his gospel with the eternal deity of the Son of God who became flesh and pitched his tent among us (John 1:1-18).

On p. 102, we learn that Papa has scars on her wrists. This attempt to identify the Father with the sufferings of Jesus opens the door to a view that was determined to be heresy by the early church. Called "Patripassionism" it is the view that the Father suffered on the cross. The church Fathers saw this as a confusion of the role of the second person of the godhead and condemned the view as heretical.

The scripture makes it very clear that it was the Son, not the Father, who bore our sins in his own body on the cross. I know that the Trinity is a mystery, but we must keep our thinking biblical or we open the door to every kind of offensive idea.

On p. 105, Jesus makes a mess in preparing a meal and Papa calls him "greasy fingers." Strange that the NT never speaks of Jesus making a faux pas, a mistake, a mess up, or whatever. If the Holy Spirit had thought we needed to see Jesus break dishes and make a mess of supper in order for us to know and trust him, then we would have such accounts in the NT. The author's attempt to make Jesus more like us and, thus, more likeable, is contrived and extreme. Did Jesus ever try to walk on water and fail? Did he ever attempt to heal and fail? Did he ever say "Oops?"

On p. 110, the author has Jesus say that he is the "best" way to relate to the Father and the Spirit. Jesus is not the BEST way, he is the ONLY way. The author is inclusivistic and postmodern in his understanding of salvation. This is dangerous and one of the greatest challenges of our day.

The author suggests that non-Christians are going to be saved (p. 182). He says that God does not punish us for our sins (pp. 119-20). On pp. 192, he suggests that God has done everything he can do to reconcile mankind and now he is waiting for men to respond to him. This is extreme Arminianism.

On p. 225, he continues this idea and says that he (Papa) has already forgiven every one of their sins, even though not everyone chooses relationship.
On p. 206, Papa says that she never has any expectations of anyone; therefore they can never disappoint her. She (he/it?) can never be disappointed in anyone. Where did this idea come from? It is pure postmodernism.

But the most disturbing idea is that God can be understood to be like an obese woman name "Papa." This sexual confusion hardly interprets the nature of God, who is Father, Son, and Spirit. And the feminine character, who represents the Holy Spirit, though emotionally attractive, hardly resembles the Spirit of Jesus in the New Testament.

God has the right to control how humans think about Him. The ancient world was full of female deities. Our contemporary world worships the spirit of Gaia and the feminine spirit. Feminist theologians debate the feminine side of God and some even relate the Holy Spirit to the idea of femininity. God could have revealed himself with feminine features if he had thought it wise and good and if that would have been true to his essence. But he did not. Therefore, in my opinion, we don't have the freedom to portray him with feminine characteristics.

God's purpose in revealing himself as Father, Son, and Spirit was not because God has male sexual characteristics, because he doesn't. His purpose is to faithfully describe his eternal nature. He chose Father, Son, and Spirit because, as omniscient, he knew this best described his eternal essence. The divine trinity is not mere allegory or metaphor. God's eternal essence is Trinitarian. He is eternally Father, Son, and Spirit.

The book is powerful, emotional, and attractive. Its subtle heresies, not apparent to most baby believers, make it very dangerous and, consequently, disturbing to me.
The author, William P. Young, stops short of affirming universal salvation; but he does raise the possibility and indicates some sympathy to the idea.

Beware of the coming flood of literature masquerading as biblical and evangelical which, in fact, advocates or at least sympathetically addresses the issues of inclusivism, universalism, and a kinder, gentler deity.
Tell someone.
Alan Day
To visit Edmond's First Baptist Church online click here.

Thoughts Central

2008-11-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

Central Baptist Church I commend you on a job well done. I asked for the Central family to turn out in mass number to support the Littleton family and you did more than show up; you served, you welcomed, you greeted and it was the largest turnout for Central that I have seen in my short term of neraly 3 years. We had a record number of guest here for recent times.

358 people were here for the service to commision and send off Mike Littleton, awesome! We received 2,900 dollars for Lori and the children in the love offering. What was even more powerful was the response to the presentation of the gospel messsage. I saw more than 15 hands go up indicating repentance and trusting Jesus Christ as savior. Some even came forward and allowed us to discuss discipleship with them. God changes people and look what HE continues to do through Mike Littleton and the people of Central.

Special thanks to Daniel and the student ministry for a powerful presentation with the drama on Sunday night as well. Central is rapidly becoming the church I envision us becoming. A ministering body that never compromises the message of Christ and the standards of a Holy God while compassionatley reaching out to the downtrodden and the unchurched with passion.

I want to share with you that these are the times to rejoice and the times in which to work even harder. I pray we are all found faithful when our Lord returns. I pray we never stop showing compassion to the lost. I pray we always uphold biblical standards of purity until marriage and unity in marriage. I pray we are always found reaching out to the despised and the shameful who are looking for hope and forgiveness in Christ.

We need to be compassionate to the unwed mother and help her in her desire to follow Jesus. We need to be compassionate to the drunkard and the addict who desire to know the truth and so desperately need healing. We need to give wisdom to those who seek it for their marriages and relationships. We need to promote the the older teaching the younger how to follow Christ

Looking ahead I see Central being this type of church and to a large degree Central continues to make progress in that direction. To make us even better we have to make Sunday school better. Keep praying for teachers that God raise them up or bring them in to our fellowship. We need to start new units inorder to reach more unchurched people.

We must see more people saved, baptized and taught to obey all that Christ commanded each year. We are now nearly three months into the new church year and we must be faithful to the call. Remember our mission and action statement exist as one statement which reads: Great Commandment; Great Commission; Great Compassion.

By the way, as I write this on Tuesday night, November 18, 2008 Mike Littleton is at home with his family for 30 more days. Soon enough he will serve time long enough so I am not asahmed or feeling guilty that he has these last few days, 30 more days than we thought this morning. Today was a tough and emotionally draining day as I watched the Littleton family hug Mike goodbye expecting to see him remanded after the plea hearing today.

When the plea hearing ended Mike was allowed to go home through Thanksgiving and into December. Yes, we will have to go through this again in 30 days but tonight I rejoice that the Littletons have been given a few more days.

Be Biblical!
Andy Goode
Acts 20:24

2008-11-02T12:48:00.000-08:00

America Is Not Dead Afterall

2008-09-16T11:45:00.000-07:00

Something inside of me welled up for the first time in many, many years. I thought that sense of what I call "True America" was gone from within me. Please do not question my patriotism, that has only increased as I have matured but that sense of idealistic America seemed to have waned with my childhood innocence...only memories remained.

That sense that any American could one day run for president of the greatest country on earth and could actually become president. That among other noble ideas we hold as American children soon fade away as we learn how government really works. Something welled up in me recently that took me back to childhood and the most noble of dreams I once held about our great country.

Having a B.S. in Political Science and having been to law school it seemed that I really knew or at least knew enough, to know that an oligarchy existed in America today, a real ruling class that not just any American could be a part of and therefore become president.

This all changed when I heard about an American who was not from the ivy league, who does not seem to be a politico but had proven to be a leader and proven to be a person of great character. A person not born to a family of privilege, no estate in New England, no long line of well to do's in their genealogy.

I heard about this person who is not a community organizer but a community changer. A person who loves family and has Christian values such as those values on which this country was founded and should still be operated upon.

Then I saw this person in a photograph and I was pleased, never before had I ever thought of a candicate for vice president to be physically attractive. Then I saw Sara Palin on television and like never before I was waiting to see what she would say next. I was impresssed and it gives my heart joy to see the DNC scrambling at a loss for what to do.

Politically, McCain is not conservative enough for me although he has my utmost respect. Palin however sinches the deal for me. I really did not have a choice anyway because I could never vote for anyone who is for abortion, linked to terroist, offers nothing in a plan but weak rhetoric and has no respect for our armed forces.

Unlike Michelle Obama, I have always been proud of my country but today is a new day. I have renewed sense of pride almost as much as I did when Ronald Reagan was our president. There are no more men like Reagan that is why Sara Palin arose for such a time as this. Although I mean no disrespect to Palin, as good as she is, she is not Ronald Reagan. The integrity crisis among men in our country left only Palin as a media proof choice and a great choice she remains.

I urge all American voters to realize what is being said and what is not being said by the candidates. The Dems are worried about a used tanning bed that Palin bought with her own money. Talk about "nit picking".

Listen to what Obama says, watch the body language between Obama and Biden they are a camp divided gainst themsleves offering no verbiage of substance. Be not decieved McCain -Palin is our only hope.

Let it well up in you the noble thought that a runner up in a beauty pagent, out of the pages of Americana thought enough of others to try to lead a small town and took action. Let it encourage you that a hometown girl from a working class family in "hometown" USA aspired to the office of Govenor in her state without loosing her character, without compromising her itegrity and she just might become the President of the United States one day. Until then, Sara palin remains a great encouragement and inspiration for all of us who remember America in a more innocent sense. The way we thought of our country after WWII and in the days of Reagan.