$$$ Caleb’s New Car – Not!

Caleb turned sixteen last month and got his driver’s license a couple of weeks later. He is now wanting to drive by himself all of the time. He is even willing to take his sisters to run errands. When we were in Hershey, PA, a couple of weeks ago we came across a 2009 Corvette that he fell in love with. Since he is such an avid Clemson fan he loved the orange color. We didn’t take it home with us though. The $70k plus price tag is just a little bit out of our price range. Anyway, I’m having to save money to pay for the additional insurance and for the braces he had put on his top teeth this week.

How Good Are You at Getting Small

I enjoy listening to sermons through my Ipod while driving around town or early in the morning or late at night. Yesterday I listened to a message that I heard preached a few years ago in Myrtle Beach at the American Association of Christian Schools conference by Attorney David Gibbs. He is the founder and president of the Christian Law Association. This message was called “How Good are You at Getting Small.” It was a reminder that we make God big by making ourselves small. This is a challenge we all need to be reminded of every day. If you have time I encourage you to listen to the message. It can be found by following this link.

Great Background Music

Some people may not have noticed the link to online Christian radio on our church website. The link is over on the left near the bottom. This station is streaming music from Ron Hamilton, Sacred Music Services, the Wilds, Mac and Beth Lynch, the Herbster Trio, West Coast Baptist College, Majesty Music and others. Click here to listen to this station. You can click on this link and then continue to work on your computer in a separate window.

Lessons on the Kingdom

This morning we returned to our sermon series on the Gospel of Mark. Mark’s gospel is an action gospel. It contains stories of Jesus moving quickly from one place to the other. The narrative is fast paced. Mark tells us that Jesus taught, but very rarely does he tell us what Jesus taught. In chapter four though that all changes as Mark takes his pen and reveals to us four important parables. It strikes me that Mark tells us that Jesus spoke many parables, but he only gives us these four here. Why did he include these four? Is there something that ties all of these together. I believe if we study this chapter we will see that Mark was very deliberate in what he was doing. He intentionally wrote the way he did. Listen to the sermon “Lessons on the Kingdom” as we unpack the last three of the parables. You can also visit our sermons page.

Four Adorable Girls

Just thought you all might want to see a photo of the Davis girls.

Abigail, Hannah, Joanna, Bethany

Abby’s Eleventh Birthday

Abigail turned eleven yesterday (7/17). She wanted to go to the Olive Garden in Raligh for lunch. She and I went by the radio station earlier in the morning and then visited in the hospital before returning home to pick up the rest of the family. We let Caleb drive to Raleigh for us. We were in a good bit of traffic and he did a great job for us. We had several of Abby’s presents already picked out, but we wanted to find an inexpensive mp3 player for her. We found one at Target with 1 GB of storage for about $35. She was thrilled when she opened it. She loves to listen to the Steve Pettit Evangelistic Team, The Wilds music, Soundforth from BJU, Mac Lynch, Matt and Christy Taylor, and Ron Hamilton. I loaded her mp3 player when we arrived back at home and she listened to it last night. While in Raleigh we ate at Olive Garden and then stopped by the Triangle Town Center Mall. One thing she requested was that she get to bungee jump on the trampolines in the center of the mall. They strap you into a harness attached to the bungee cords and then have you jump on the trampoline. The bungees tighten and you fly way up into the air up near the second floor of the mall. Here is picture of Abby jumping. She enjoyed flipping backwards and forwards. She looked like a little gymnast. I apologize for it being blurry. It was the best picture I could get. The photo above was taken outside the mall on the rocks by the waterfall outside the food court. We had a great afternoon. I had to return to Wilson for a school board meeting so I didn’t get to enjoy the cake that she and her mom made earlier in the morning. It was a chocolate and peanut butter eclair cake that they said was delicious. I probably didn’t need it anyway.

“A Bad Night to Be an Atheist”

I wonder if anyone else was watching the hitting clinic that Josh Hamilton put on at last night’s MLB Homerun Derby. He hit a record twenty-eight homeruns in the first round. The excitement at Yankee Stadium was electric and you could almost feel it through the television set. To make the story even more interesting, his pitcher was a 71 year old friend who was a volunteer baseball coach who used to throw him batting practice. Hamilton followed through on a promise he made to his coach that if he ever made the Homerun Derby he would ask his friend to pitch for him. Hamilton said in an interview following the contest, “I first of all want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” He also said that all the glory goes to Jesus. The ESPN announcers were as excited as anyone else. As Hamilton hit, they told his remarkable story of rehabilitation from drug addiction. One of the announcers exclaimed, “It is a bad night to be an atheist.” You can read more about Josh Hamilton in this article “I’m Proof That Hope is Never Lost,” from ESPN the Magazine. For a recap on Hamilton’s record breaking first round view the ESPN Story here.

Do You Have Your Ears On – Part 2

We concluded our message this morning on Mark 4:1-20. Last week we saw 1) The Sower’s Responsibility and 2) The Seed’s Reliability. This week we looked at the third point 3) The Soil’s Receptivity. We examined the four types of soil that Jesus described. We learned that the majority of the seed did not bring forth any fruit – the birds snatched the seed, the sun scorched the seed, or the thorns and weeds stifled the seed. There was a successful soil though that resulted in genuine salvation and genuine fruit. You can listen to this message by following this link or by visiting our sermons page.

Quick Trip to PA – God’s Timing is Incredible

My family joined the Greg Whitley family for a couple of days in Pennsylvania. We drove up on Wednesday afternoon and arrived at the Shady Maple Smorgasbord a little after 5:00 p.m. for their prime rib night. We enjoyed the meal and then shopping in the gift shop and at their grocery store. We then traveled through Amish country through Lancaster to our hotel in Middletown. On Thursday we went to Hershey Park. We had a great time riding roller coasters and other thrill rides. We also visited Chocolate World where we took their chocolate tour and visited their enormous gift shop. We then raced go-carts and played miniature golf. We had supper at Bob Evans near our hotel. On Friday we went back through Amish country and took in the sights of the Pennsylvania countryside. Greg had an employee who works with him that knew an Amish man that lived outside Lancaster. He sent a care package with Greg for us to deliver. He was a very nice man that even invited all ten of us to have lunch with him and his wife. We stopped for lunch at Bird-in-Hand and enjoyed a wonderful meal. Joanna and Denise went shopping while the rest of us played another game of miniature golf. We visited the Rockvale Outlets and then went to the Sight & Sound Theater for their presentation called “In the Beginning.” We had supper again at Bob Evans near our hotel.

On Saturday morning we went back to Hummelstown right behind Hershey Park to the Mountain View Bible Church. On Wednesday we had received an email from Sid Messer that his father-in-law Joe Beachell had passed away. The funeral was on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. Visitation was from 9:00 until 11:00 a.m. Someone bought Susie Messer a plane ticket to return home for the funeral. Since we were in the area, we wanted to be sure to see Susie. The timing could not have been better. She was really surprised to see all of us standing outside the church waiting for her when she arrived at the church.

We left the church and traveled about an hour and a half away for Ryan Vanderboegh’s wedding. We met up with Pastor Mike, our youth pastor, and with Don and Dominique Samson and Evan and Desiree Brewer from our church. The wedding was lovely. They had a full meal for the reception. Our family left Pennsylvania somewhere around 3:00 p.m. We drove all the way home and arrived around 9:30 p.m.

We are rejoicing in the way the Lord worked for us to be able to be present for Ryan’s wedding, but also for Susie and her family.

Email from Missionary Sid Messer

I received the following email from Sid Messer today. We have been praying for his father-in-law for several years now.

It’s been approximately a month now since Mr. Beachell left the hospital to stay with one of his daughters in Greenville, SC where he has been under hospice care. About a week ago he declined dramatically and was in an unconscious state until finally he took his last breath early yesterday afternoon, and the Lord graciously decided to take Susie’s father home to be with Him in glory.

Susie was able to spend some precious moments with him during her two week stay as she and other family members gathered around him for times of prayer, singing, Bible reading, and reminiscing. Of course, there were times of laughter and tears but not once did Mr. Beachell complain of his situation but rather praised the Lord perpetually for having guided his life, for his family and most of all for dying on the cross for his sins so that he might spend eternity with Him. Many people came to visit to be an encouragement to him but left having been encouraged. Even to his last words on earth, Mr. Beachell followed the psalmist’s example of Psalm 63:5 “My mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.” Numerous times he repeated that he was not afraid of dying but actually welcomed the thought. It was obvious that he loved the Savior as he mentioned on several occasions of his longing to see Him.

Susie is doing very well and is rejoicing in the goodness and mercy of God knowing that her dad will be dwelling in the house of the Lord forever (Ps 23:6).We also know that he is experiencing the greatest contentment possible since Psalm 17:15 assures us that, “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness.” And when we ponder on verses like Psalm 16:11 that share with us that “in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” we are immediately comforted by the Holy Spirit with these grand promises knowing that Mr. Beachell was truly a child of God and is experiencing these very things this very moment! Mr. Beachell did not lose his life rather he has gained eternal life.

The funeral will be held in Hershey, Pennsylvania at Mountain ViewBibleChurch this Saturday morning. Susie will not be attending the service but is grateful to the Lord for the invaluable time spent with her father while he still remained here with us. We thank all of you that have prayed for her and her family during this time and for the many thoughtful comments many of you have shared. Susie requests that you pray specifically for her mother-in-law, Isabela. She’s a Colombian Indian lady who will be returning to the jungles on the 16th of this month. She has done exceptionally well during this time but is somewhat anxious of her future without her husband. Pray for strength, guidance and provisions.

Once again, thank you for all the prayer and support that many of you have offered and we are the privileged ones to have such wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ. We give God all the glory for all that He has done.

For His Glory,
Sid Messer
Missionary in Ecuador
Eph. 1:12

PS – I was just about to send out this email this morning when Susie came into my study. She sat down and said, “Sid, you’re not going to believe it.” She had just spoken with a lady on the phone that informed Susie that several people from where she grew up in Pennsylvania have expressed a desire to fly her to her father’s funeral with all expenses paid! Experiences like that just kind of leave you stunned and in a small daze. It could never be overstated that we have such a benevolent God and a wonderful Christian family! The Lord has already shown us tremendous grace and yet here comes more grace and more grace and yet more grace! We thank all of you that have participated in this kind act and Susie will forever be grateful.