Please Pray for Hannah Taylor

Dear friends,

Would you please pray for Yogi Taylor’s a baby girl named Hannah, she is 14 months old. Yogi is pastor of Saraland Baptist Church outside of Mobile AL. He is a new member of the Planning Committee of the Deep South Regional Founders Conference.  He is also scheduled to preach at our 2010 conference. He has had some trying times recently but none as difficult as last night when they carried their baby to the doctor for diarrhea and the doctor discovered a tumor on her adrenaline gland which is cancerous. They will do surgery on her this morning at 11:30. As soon as I receive more news I will let you know.

Rebuild Lakeshore Update

Rebuild Lakeshore has posted the video link to WLOX 13 in Biloxi that is reporting the possible closure of the church and relief efforts at Lakeshore Baptist Church.  I have posted a comment on the Founders blog  and here about the need for prayer and finacial and physical support.  Please consider giving to Rebuild Lakeshore today, and as always, keep them in your prayers.

URGENT: Lakeshore Baptist in need of prayers and support

While Don Elbourne was at our conference on Thursday, the Planning and Zoning Board of Hancock County was voting to close the doors of the relief efforts at Lakeshore Baptist Church. Please be in prayer for Lakeshore and Bro. Don.

You can read more about it here at the Sea Coast Echo or Rebuild Lakeshore.

Although, I have not okayed this with Don, I recommend calling the Board of Supervisors at 228-467-0172 or writing them a letter and letting them know how much closing the doors of the relief work is going to affect the efforts in rebuilding their own community.

Hancock Board of Supervisors – Building 3
3068 Longfellow Drive
Bay St. Louis, MS  39521

If you missed Don’s sermon on Friday morning, you missed a lot. I will be giving an written summary soon and we should have the audio available in a few days.

Audio Recordings of the Conference

We have recorded the sessions this year and will have them available soon. Please check back soon for more details.

Day 1 – Part 2 Jeff Noblit

I am really late in getting this posted, and I am wishing that I had a laptop to take to the conference.  I noticed several people with laptops at the conference, so if you are one of those people and you blog, please let me know because we would love to know what you thought.

We have all been eagerly awaiting to hear from our brother Jeff Noblit this year and he did not disappoint us.  Bro. Jeff was under the weather and we thought that there may be a chance that he may not make it.  However, the Lord was gracious to us and to Jeff to allow him to come and you would have never known that he was sick at all.

Bro.  Jeff preached on Colossians 2:8-15 and he titled it “Jesus Paid it All.”  It was an exposition on one of my favorite passages from Colossians.  I think that this passage ought to be required to be preached from at every pastor conference at least once.

Although the nature of God is not so obvious in this passage, Noblit reminded us that the nature of God can only be understood in the cross of Christ.  He also reminded us that the philosophy that Paul warns us not to taken captive or “cheated” by is the religion of man.  The man-made, man-centered religion that we are to be so careful to avoid has been alive and well in many “Bible-believing” churches today.  He explained that there is a difference in using the Bible to teach a lesson and in preaching the Bible.  We have depended so much on programs and plans of a man-centered approach that we have lost the gospel in the process.  As Noblit coined, “We have concentrated on the plan of salvation and what we need to do is concentrate on the Man of salvation.”  Christ is God’s exclusive provision. In Him we have been made more than better than we were, we have been made complete.

Circumcision  was the symbol of being in the covenant with God and removing the flesh of offense which was the symbol of sin.  Why would we want the symbol when we have the real thing?  Christ is the effectual surgeon.  He marks us as His and He is able to remove the sin and not just symbolically.

Christ brings us new life when we were still dead.  Noblit pointed out that death reigned and continues to reign in the human race.  However, Christ makes us alive with Him.

Noblit painted a disturbing picture of what the “certificate of debt” that Paul refers to in verse 14.  He said that if he had the liberty to imagine what the certificate would say, he would imagine that it probably said, “You shall have no other gods before me – Guilty!  You shall appear before the white throne judgment to receive just condemnation for violating the law of a holy God.”  Noblit went through the entire 10 commandments repeating the same verdict and punishment.  It had a tremendous affect upon us all.  Nevertheless, it did not have as much affect as the last part when Noblit describes Jesus taking the certificate and dipping his pen in His own blood and crossing out the document and signing His own name and writing “Paid in Full!”  It is a very powerful thought indeed.

Day 1 – Part 1 Earl Blackburn

I am taking a chance that I may have time to post some on the conference this year.  I tried to do this last year, but was unsuccessful.  I know that there were some at the conference last night with laptops, so if anyone out there is posting live,  please let me know.  We will put your links on here.  If we have several at a time then that will be great.  It appears that we have a WIFI connection in the chapel so it should not be a problem.  I am checking to make sure it will be possible to do so during the breaks at Grace Baptist.

So far things are going great.  We had a great turn out for our first session last night.  The outside air was cold but the chapel and the preaching was fiery hot.  Earl Blackburn preached on an inexhaustable subject, the Power of God.  He preached from Revelation 19:6

And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. (KJV)

Blackburn told us that no matter how long we try we will not be able to fully grasp the power of God while we are here in this world, which could be said about any of God’s attributes.  However, even when we have been in glory for a trillion years we will still be in awe of His wonderful majesty and power.  In our modern day attention span this is almost to wonderful to grasp.

The only power that any creature posses has been given to them by God.  Whether that be a king, president, preacher, teacher or whom ever it all is given by God.

His power has been asserted by His own divine declaration.  God is not caught up in what Blackburn labeled by pseudo-intellectualism of “Can make an object so heavy that even He could not lift it?”  As my old headmaster in high school responded to a similar question that was proposed to him, “I assume that God is wise enough not to waste in His time with such foolishness.”  I wish that I had realized how wise my headmaster was back then instead of now.

Going along this same line of thinking, Blackburn pointed out that God’s power is marked by seven denials.  Unfortunately, I was not able to write them down and I am having to go by memory, if you have them, please let me know. The ones I remember are God cannot lie, God cannot change, God cannot do what does not please Him.  Again, I am sorry that I cannot go into it further, but I believe I had to go and handle the registration table and missed part of this.  However the point is made that God has promised good to us (Redemption) and He cannot lie and He will not change His mind.  Praise God for this, because like Blackburn said if it were not so, then we are dead meat.

Blackburn pointed us to the fact once again that the problem with us is that our idea of God is not too big but too small.  We don’t ask of Him too much but too little.  All of Scripture points to God’s power and soverignty and that He does all that pleases and glorifies Him.

I see that I am running late to get ready this morning so I will try to post more today.  Be sure to check back here for more information about purchasing audio recordings of the session which is much better than my memory.

Again, we would love to hear your comments and opinions on how the sessions are going.

The Nature of God

2009 Deep South Regional Founders Conference

January 15-17, 2009
Grace Chapel @ Reformed Theological Seminary
&
Grace Baptist Church
Jackson, Mississippi

This year the Deep South Regional Founders Conference will delve into the deep waters of the Nature of God. From God’s perfect justness to His all encompassing mercy; His immense power over creation to His intimate knowledge of every hair on our head, God’s nature is more vast than can be contained in the universe yet we are called to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). We pray that this year’s conference will be edifying when we reflect on the very essence of God, and what makes God–God. We also pray that it will be a time of fellowship for pastors and church leaders from across the South as we gather together on the campus of the Reformed Theological Seminary and at Grace Baptist Church of Jackson.

Rev. Jeff Noblit

Rev. Jeff Noblit of Anchored in Truth Ministries will be delivering our keynote messages and will be joined by other solid preachers from around Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.

Please click on Speakers and Conference Registration for more information.

If you have any questions, please email us at deep.south.founders@gmail.com