STATE MISSIONS: You Stand for Something Or Fall for Everything
All through the Bible, time after time, we find that the sinful and rebellious nature of man has decided to deny that God exists or believes there is no way to know if He does and end up labeling themselves as atheist or agnostics. But should we expect less from them?
All through the Bible, time after time, we find that the sinful and rebellious nature of man has decided to deny that God exists or believes there is no way to know if He does and end up labeling themselves as atheist or agnostics. But should we expect less from them? Yet even among those who claim the name of Jesus, some continue to be challenged by “thus saith the Lord” to the point that some try and change the Word of God to better suit their interpretation or that of another. That does not mean they are evil in their love for God.
Theirs is not a problem of believing that God is, but in believing what He has said. His Word can be made to almost mean whatever one wants it to mean. Little wonder there are so many so-called religions. Often, this is accomplished by taking a few problematic Scriptures to decern the more easily understood ones. This is the reverse of the general practice. It is accepted that the preponderance of revealed truth in which the Scriptures are consistent is considered truth. It is quickly coming to the point that we find ourselves not only battling against the forces of evil, but we are increasingly finding opposition to each other. How the Lord must wring His hands in disgust. “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand” (Mark 3:25).
Many are discovering a whole new way to interpret God’s Word — not knew in and of itself because it has been around for centuries, but new to them. They call it Calvinism and, in doing so, they are turning away from the very truths of the gospel message that many of them and the vast majority heard and accepted for the forgiveness of their sin.
I personally and publicly cannot accept their presentation of God in such an unscriptural manner. Their interpretation of God’s character presents a very different God from the One I know personally. I am first to admit that I am no debater or theologian or even a very good preacher. But as the Apostle Paul stated “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (I Cor. 2:2).
I want to leave my Calvinist friends with a question. II Peter (NKJV) states, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” It is the word “longsuffering” which means patient, forbearance, tolerant. The word longsuffering in the Bible is a word made up of two Greek words meaning “long” and “temper.” So literally, longsuffering means “long tempered.” Why? I love you in Jesus.
From Our Missionaries
Misión Creciendo en Cristo (Growing in Christ), North Little Rock: Juan Carlos Posadas writes, “Our Sunday meeting was very varied. Like most churches in our association, we developed our meeting with an emphasis on BMA Global Missions. The songs were related to missions and the children had a special song.
“German Galindo, whom we supported in prayer and financially as a missionary in Mexico City, shared the word with us via Zoom.
“We also presented a lot of information about the work being done in our association worldwide and collected the Jerry Kidd offering.
“After the program, we proceeded to inaugurate the recently completed playground. We thanked God for His provision for the children, the brothers and sisters who worked voluntarily in the construction and especially Oscar López, who directed the project. Additionally, we appreciate the funding from the BMA of Arkansas Revolving Loan Fund, Inc.
“Of course, we couldn’t miss breaking a couple of piñatas celebrating with the congregation.
“Finally, the youth made food, desserts and drinks available to the church to raise funds for the Youth Camp in March and the SOAR Student Conference in July.
“We are very happy with the attendance on Sundays. In the last two months, we have been experiencing growth. We thank God for His work among us as the Holy Spirit is moving, and it is not going unnoticed in the congregation. Let us pray that God continues to add those who are to be saved and bless the congregation.”
Ebenezer, West Little Rock: Ruben Isturiz writes, “It was a great blessing to see Sister Avelina return and congregate in Ebenezer. She is one of our most faithful members. At 87 years old, she has a contagious enthusiasm. Because she has been sick, she could not congregate but joined every week via our online broadcast.
Last Sunday, she was full of joy to be able to come back. She said, ‘Pastor, it is never the same to be here than to see everything through a screen.’ She is a grandmother to all of us, a beloved sister and an example to everyone at Ebenezer.
“It was an inspiring service last Sunday. We prayed for missions and made a special emphasis for BMA Global Missions. We prayed for the 10/40 Window, and it was our time to collect a special offering for missions.
“Pray for the plans we have in the following weeks. We have a special activity together with the American church for the day of the solar eclipse. We also have Easter activities coming up. Keep praying for the Berean Groups (home groups) and our mission field in central Arkansas; but above all things, may God’s name be glorified. To God be the glory!”
Faith Chapel, Flippin: Johnny Shew writes, “We had a wonderful week at Faith Chapel! This has been a great February, with the warmest weather I ever remember. We added four more to our number. Praise God! We keep having several out sick, but it has been different families each week, so we had the same number each week. Like I always say, if we were all here at the same time, we wouldn’t fit in this little building — we barely do now.
“We did hear from the drywallers. They said they have just been covered up, but they hope to get our building stocked this week and then will be able to begin soon. Please join us in prayer for that.
“We are busy working on adding the classroom expansion, so please join us in prayer for that, too.
“We were blessed this past week when we received a church van as a gift from First Baptist Church in Waldo. It is in great condition. They took really good care of it, and we will, too! We can’t thank them enough for this generous donation to our ministry, and we pray that it will help us continue growing and ministering to this community. Our members have lovingly named it Waldo out of appreciation.
“We are truly humbled by the support we have received from all of you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We could not do this without you, and we especially thank you for your prayers! Please continue. God is answering them.”
Faith Journey, Benton: Bryan Clay writes, “It’s been a busy week at the mission. We have been collecting items for one of the local schools that said they needed personal hygiene items and asked if we could provide these for their students. We are so thankful for our folks at the mission with their generous hearts and willingness to serve others in helping to provide these things for this school.
“We still have a significant number of residents out with illness at the nursing facilities that we minister to, as well as some in our Faith Journey congregation. Please keep all those people in your prayers.
“This week, we were able to spend time with a faithful follower who was in the hospital. He comes to our small group every week at the nursing facility. He was so happy to see a familiar face and enjoyed being prayed with while he is healing from an illness. I feel so blessed to be able to be a small part of people’s lives and to be able to bring Jesus to them wherever they are!”
Misión Gracia Soberana (Sovereign Grace), NWA:Roberto Marcelletti writes, “More people continue to join our Grace Groups (small groups). My wife invited a woman who works with her to our Rogers group and she brought her sister. These two women had never been to a Bible study or read a Bible. It is beautiful how the study of the gospel impacted them and, at the end, when we prayed for them, there were tears in our eyes. We ask for your prayers for Lupita and Diana.
“In our Sunday School, Patty had 13 children. She is training another teacher to divide the group and have two classes.
“We ask for your prayers since we need to set up two classrooms with TVs, things for children and a photocopier since we do it with the printer at home and we spend a lot on ink every week.
“We want to thank you for all your support and prayers.”
Epic Life, Pea Ridge: Jake McCandless writes, “Still, it has been a challenging week as we ended up with COVID in our house this week. Over the last four weeks, we’ve had the flu, a loss in our family and COVID. But we were still able to have our Connection Groups. Woodbridge had first-time guests return and voice interest in eventually leading a group.
“We’re praying that we can finally have our leader meeting this Sunday! Pray that we can pull that off.
“This week opened up several doors in the community. I volunteered to share about being an author at Career Day. I failed to read the whole email. I thought I’d be sharing it with my daughter’s class. It turned out it was four school assemblies in which the whole school came through, but that meant I got to share books about Jesus with the whole intermediate school. That night was the intermediate school’s Daddy-Daughter Dance. Several students went home and told their parents about my career day presentation, which opened up many conversations with parents.”
El Faro #2 Hispanic Mission, Cabot/Jacksonville: Michael Hight writes, “This week has been very humbling. I made some more contacts, and on Feb. 28, we have a team of Hispanic pastors that will meet in Cabot for a special prayer meeting for the mission work and my upcoming medical trip to Arizona.
“I have received many calls, texts and even love offerings to help with this, so I thought I would explain what is happening and ask for your prayers. Early last year, I was bitten by a tick, and the bite got really infected. The bacteria caused my immune system to kick into overdrive and it began attacking itself. This landed me in the hospital for six days, and they treated it with infusion treatments.
“They told me I would return to normal within two months, but that didn’t happen. I continued to have symptoms and just kept trying to push through, thinking it would get better. After moving to Cabot and starting this new work, things really took a turn for the worse, and now it is affecting my heart and respiratory system. They tried to get me into UAMS, but the soonest date available wasn’t until December 2024. When I went to my cardiologist, he said, ‘You can’t find the treatment you need here in Arkansas. You need to go to the Mayo Clinic or somewhere like that.’ The Mayo Clinic advised me that they had no appointments available, and we kept researching doctors who specialize in these types of illnesses.
“According to the cardiologist, COVID-19 plus the tick bite put my body in a very compromised position. Our research led us to the Center for Complex Neurology in Phoenix, Ariz. They reviewed my records and said they could see me, but it would take some time. Then they called and said they had an appointment open up for March 12. I told them to put me down for that date.
“The out-of-pocket expenses will be around $11,000. But God is already moving in this area. People and churches I didn’t know were aware of my situation began sending offerings to help. We are not there yet, but we have full faith that God is in this and will provide for our needs.
“People have asked how this is affecting the mission work. I would be lying to say that it hasn’t affected my ability to work as hard as I would like, but we have made some crucial contacts I think will bear fruit in the future. I have become more convinced through this that we are where we need to be and that Satan is trying to kill the vision.
“I still believe in a miracle-working God and ask that you pray for me and especially the doctors during that week of testing that they can properly diagnose me and have a plan of treatment that will get me back to 100% soon.
“Thanks for all the prayers and love offerings. You will never know how much they mean to Jenifer and me!”
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Paul White
Arkansas State Missions Director Paul White pens a weekly column to inform the BMA of Arkansas concerning Arkansas Missions’ activity and includes individual reports from each church planter.
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