VBS!

Last week at ETBC we had Vacation Bible School.
I want to thank our leaders: Elaine Norton, Laura Wahlers, Armin Chapman, Kevin White and everyone else.
God really blessed in a mighty way.
The night that stuck out to me the most was Wed. night. Our Student and Children's Pastor Kevin White explained the Gospel with humility, passion and conviction. God really blessed Kevin's message.
We saw 32 students profess faith in Jesus! We had more than Bible School we had ,in a small way, student revival.
I am truly humbled by what God did thru the Student and Children's ministry last week.

What if?

(click to enlarge)
What if MJ would have went to Duke? He would probably be a manager at McDonalds today.

Liquor By the Drink

As many of you know the town of Taylorsville will vote on Liquor by the Drink on July 29th. As of today, 185 people have already voted. Why is this a bad idea? Why would Taylorsville want more alcohol in Taylorsville.

One of the arguments for LBD is

#1. LBD is needed to generate more tax revenue.

For every one dollar generated in tax revenue from alcohol sales in North Carolina, there is a corresponding expenditure of
$21.42 due to the cost of alcohol related problems. (Alcohol/Drug Council of North Carolina, 1/2/2002)

You know I am not an expert in math but even I can see this just doesn't add up.
Society bears a huge financial burden in increased welfare cost, higher insurance premiums, police and court costs, and cost for
incarceration. This doesn’t even take into account the personal cost of suffering that individuals and families must endure.

Do you think Taylorsville should have LBD?
Watch this video.

Abortion and our next President #2

Many say McCain flip flops on abortion. USA Today said this about McCain's abortion record:

On "partial-birth" abortion
McCain voted in 2003 for a bill that banned a late-term abortion procedure opponents call "partial-birth" abortion. The Supreme Court upheld the ban in April.

On other issues
In 2006, McCain voted to make it a federal crime for anyone other than a parent to accompany a minor across state lines to get an abortion. The bill did not become law.
The National Right to Life Committee, which opposes abortion rights, said McCain voted 75% of the time with the group's interests in 2005 and 2006. Planned Parenthood, which supports abortion rights, said McCain never voted with the group's interests in 2006.

Below are some of his comments on Meet the Press.



Would McCain, as President, stand by his promises on abortion or would he be do what most Republican Presidents do, kiss the hand of the religious right until voted in then hide them in the closet until the next election and never address their concerns, mainly abortion. I have my doubts. What about you?

HB 1366 and Skunks

My Grandfather "Pop" always could smell a skunk before he ever showed himself. Must of been a spiritual gift because I never smelled the skunk before it was to late! Many close encounters.

I remember one time when a certain relgious cult came to our door when I was spending the summer with Pop and he said "Son, I smell a skunk." He was right.
I remember another time when a vacuum cleaner salesman came to his door in the late 70's and tried to sell him a vacuum cleaner. He didn't even have carpet. He said, "I knew I smelt a skunk" , when the dude left.
Pop had a nose for skunks.

I think I can smell a skunk today. It is the HB 1366 in the North Carolina legislature .
It is commonly known as the HB 1366 - School Violence Prevention Act
Or the Bullying Bill.

The House passed it last year. The Senate also passed it but took out the "enumeration language". This language lists certain groups not to be bullied.
There are more than 15 characteristics listed in the bill, including academic status, race, color and religion and sexual oreintation...etc


Mark Creech of the Christian Action League stated "The fact of the matter is no enumerations could cover all the bullying scenarios and none are needed to provide the essential protections for North Carolina’s children."

Creech goes on to say "The evil of this legislation is that it elevates “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression” on the same levels with the enumerations of race, color, ancestry, national origin, gender, physical appearance, mental, physical, or sensory disability,” which clearly are immutable or unchangeable characteristics."

Why mention any group. What is behind the "list".

One Gay rights leader said, "Bullying policies are stronger with the descriptions," said Ian Palmquist, executive director of the gay-rights group Equality North Carolina.

I agree with State Board of Education Chairman Howard Lee who says the list of enumerated classifications, including “sexual orientation,” in the conference report on HB 1366—School Violence Prevention Act is unnecessary. “There is no need for a proposed law on bullying to list reasons, including sexual orientation, why a student might be bullied, said Howard Lee, chairman of the state school board,” the article reads. It also quotes Chairman Lee as saying, “Bullying is bullying.... I don't care who it's against and under what circumstances."

Why does the Bill mention specific groups at all. I smell a skunk.



Contact Ray Warren your local represenative with your concerns. He represents you and your convictions. He needs to hear from you. Ray is a good man and I believe Ray will represent your views.
To contact Mr. Warren:
919-715-8361
Rayw@ncleg.net

Represenative Warren I smell a skunk what do you smell?

ETBC in the Paper!

North Carolina teens help Habitat here

By KIMBERLY BROWN
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 9:19 AM EDT



Kyle Mayberry, 13, and Taylor Steele, 12, both of Taylorsville, N.C., sort molding at the Habitat for Humanity of Northeast Georgia warehouse on Thursday. Mayberry and Steele were part of a group of 20 teens and preteens attending Student Life Missions Camp, held at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center in Toccoa. KIMBERLY BROWN/Staff



"Actions speak way louder than words," says 16-year-old Graham Marshall of Taylorsville, N.C.

Marshall is part of a group of teens from East Taylorsville Baptist Church who spent three days of their summer vacation helping out at Habitat for Humanity of Northeast Georgia in Clarkesville.

The teenagers came to Georgia to attend Student Life Missions Camp, being held at Georgia Baptist Conference Center in Toccoa.

Led by their pastor, Jamie Steele, the group of about 20 teens and pre-teens drove from Toccoa to Clarkesville for three of their five camp days to help at the Habitat for Humanity store and warehouse. Their jobs included organizing and painting the Habitat warehouse and helping to clean and organize Habitat's ReStore thrift store.

Another group of East Taylorsville Baptist youth, Steele says, chose to work at the Salvation Army facility in Toccoa.

"[The camp] offers two tracks," Steele says. "Games all day or missions. Our students want to do missions."

Jacob Bumgarner, 16, says he came to Clarkesville to help with heavy lifting, but realized there was something more going on with the volunteer work.

"I didn't really think about the godly aspect of it, but when I got down here, I began to realize that we really are making a difference in people's lives," he says. "It really kind of kicked in that, just by being here, God's working through me to help reach other people. Every piece of molding we sort might go into somebody's home that really doesn't have anything."



Marshall says he hopes that his actions will set an example.

"I pray that, as we're doing these things here, people will look at us and ask, 'why are you different? You're a teenager and you're working.' That gives us the opportunity to share what we firmly believe in."

The time spent in the Habitat warehouse has made both Marshall and Bumgarner realize they don't need to travel far to perform missions.

"One of our church's big sayings was 'across the street and around the world,' which means we've got to reach people not just in Uruguay and Montana, but right across the street from our church," Bumgarner says. "It's awesome that we can come down here and do this kind of stuff. I love it and wouldn't take this time away for anything. But it'd be kind of hypocritical if we went home and didn't do anything in our hometown."

Marshall agrees.

"If I could tell the people in Clarkesville one thing, it's that we've come all the way from North Carolina to do this, but this is their hometown and they can do the same stuff," he says. "We realize this week that we can go home and do the same stuff in our hometown. We have Habitat for Humanity in Taylorsville. People are needy anywhere you go."

Habitat for Humanity of Northeast Georgia President Dennis Magley is pleased with the work done by the East Taylorville Baptist teens, and he's always happy to have volunteer groups.

"The kids are doing great," he says. "We've got them painting, we've got them organizing. They're getting a lot of good stuff done. It's going to brighten up the place."

Magley says another group of Student Life campers is scheduled to help July 22-24. There also are groups scheduled from the local Latter Day Saints church and a group from Camp Coleman in White County.

Any individuals or groups who would like to volunteer should call the Habitat office at 706-754-5313 or call Magley at 706-768-5548.

"To me, the mission field starts when they drive out of their church," Magley says. "We're a local mission for the local churches."



For more of this story, click on or type the URL below:

http://www.thenortheastgeorgian.com/articles/2008/07/15/news/top_stories/01topstory.txt

Abortion and our next President

How do the Presidential candidates stand on abortion, Today's post will address Barack's view.

Regardless of how you feel about Barack Obama he is very upfront about Abortion.
Barack Obama said this recently “I will never back down from making sure that women have their reproductive rights here in this country. That’s what’s at stake in this election.”

Below is Dr. Alveda King's take on abortion as reported by William McGurn.

William McGurn of the Wall Street Journal talks about Barack Obama and his appearance at the NAACP meeting last week
(taken from Dewey Burke's blog)

“For one thing, the first African-American to head the presidential ticket of a major party was on hand. Yet there was another interesting appearance that went mostly unmentioned. This was a protest by African-American pro-lifers – many NAACP members – who can’t understand why America’s most venerated civil rights organization turns a blind eye to what they say is the abortion industry’s practice of targeting poor minority neighborhoods.”

Among the pro-life demonstrators was Dr. Alveda King, a niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King. Dr. Alveda King had two abortions before converting to a pro-life position. The article records King’s description of her own experience.

“I remember when I was pregnant and considering a third abortion. I went to Daddy King [her grandfather and Martin Luther King's father]. He told me, ‘that’s a baby, not a blob of tissue.’ Unfortunately, 14 million African-Americans are not here today because of legalized abortion. It’s as if a plague swept through America’s cities and towns and took one of every four of us.”

Alveda King’s concerns are not misplaced. Abortion-on-demand in America in fact does take a disproportionate number of lives from black babies. While 1 out of about every 5 white pregnancies end in abortion, it’s nearly 1 out of every 2 for African-American pregnancies. So isn’t this an issue that the NAACP should take up?

Dr. Alveda King has a website where she eloquently makes the point about what is at stake:

‘We have been fueled by the fire of “women’s rights,” so long that we have become deaf to the outcry of the real victims whose rights are being trampled upon, the babies and the mothers. . . . What about the rights of each baby who is artificially breached before coming to term in his or her mother’s womb, only to have her skull punctured, and feel, yes agonizingly “feel” the life run out of her before she takes her first breath of freedom. What about of the rights of these women who have been called to pioneer the new frontiers of the new millennium only to have their lives snuffed out before the calendar even turns?

‘Oh, God, what would Martin Luther King, Jr., who dreamed of having his children judged by the content of their characters do if he’d lived to see the contents of thousands of children’s skulls emptied into the bottomless caverns of the abortionists pits?

‘It is time for America, perhaps the most blessed nation on earth to lead the world in repentance, and in restoration of life! . . . Abortion is at the forefront of our destruction. Partial Birth Abortion is perhaps the most heinous form of this legal genocide. . . . The only healing and redemption is in the blood of Jesus, blood willingly shed so that we could stand today and cry out for the blood of the unborn that is drenching the land of our children.


‘. . . [Martin Luther] King [Jr.] once said, “The Negro cannot win as long as he is willing to sacrifice the lives of his children for comfort and safety.” How can the “Dream” survive if we murder the children? Every aborted baby is like a slave in the womb of his or her mother. . . . If the Dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is to live, our babies must live. Our mothers must choose life. If we refuse to answer the cry of mercy from the unborn, and ignore the suffering of the mothers, then we are signing our own death warrants.





‘I too, like Martin Luther King, Jr., have a dream. I have a dream that the men and women, the boys and girls of America will come to our senses, and humble ourselves before God Almighty and pray for mercy, and receive His healing grace. I pray that this is the day, the hour of our deliverance. May God have mercy on us all.’

Set Evangelistic Goals

Below is a good article by Chuck Lawless on setting Evangelistic Goals.
(taken from Timmy Brister's blog)

Here are his five points in summary form:

1. Set a goal for developing relationships with non-believers.
In most cases, we get so isolated in our Christian bubble that we seldom have strong friendships with non-believers. Countering this tendency is not easy unless we intentionally strive to develop relationships with people outside of the church.

2. Set a goal for praying for non-believers.
Determine to pray at least weekly that God will open their blinded minds (2 Corinthians 4:3-4) and transfer them from the dominion of darkness to the kingdom of His Son (Colossians 1:13). Pray as well that you will share the Gospel boldly and clearly when an open door is apparent (Ephesians 6:18-20; Colossians 2:3-4).

3. Set a goal for simply speaking about God’s goodness.
Speak about God to your spouse, a staff member, the convenience store clerk or the bank teller. Tell somebody about God’s work in your life each day, and sharing the Gospel may well become easier.

4. Set a goal for sharing the Gospel.
If you are not evangelizing now, consider a goal to share Christ at least twice a month. If you are already doing evangelism, ask God to move you toward sharing Christ at least weekly, if not daily.

5. Set a goal for mentoring new believers.
The Great Commission is not complete when a non-believer has chosen to follow Christ. If you are not mentoring young believers, you are missing a critical component of the disciple-making process.


What are your individual goals for evangelism? I hope you have some.
Does your church have evangelistic goals?