About a half mile to the west of our church building in Ammon, Idaho is the best burger joint in the country.

Today, in West Valley City, Utah, my family ate a nice meal at Cracker Barrel.  But I did notice the food establishment located east, not too far down the street from Grace Baptist Church.

Arctic Circle!

This place is my all-time favorite.  What fast-food businesses even compare?

This is provided by MGM International (www.mgmi.org) and David Shumate, General Director

Here is a snippet of the lecture handout as he worked through the various resources on the internet: (more…)

“Islam has reached 70,000 Hispanics this past year.” – a startling statement to begin with . . . in other words, this speaker is trying to light a fire under us to see the opportunity.  Do we have a willing heart to minister to Hispanics?

 Understand the Culture of Hispanics

1.  Don’t talk bad about their heroes.  If you criticize Mary, they will shut you out.  “She was an honest, good, pure Jewish woman.” (more…)

Shawn Clapp has been used by the Lord to be a great blessing to miners’ families in Huntington, Utah.  (See his article in the Western Reporter, here.) He was the official translator used by the mining company and Utah governor during this time of tragedy in August.  He told some wonderful stories of the many opportunities God gave him to witness the gospel and engage in Bible study during this morning in the early devotion/prayer time.

And before our prayer time, Shawn (with his guitar) and Penny led us in worship through this simple song (minus the accents),

“Libertad, Libertad, O que buena!  Es aquella que da el Salvador.  Libertad a las almas perdidas, Libertand de la condenacion.”

In the first morning workshop, Shawn touched on these main points: (more…)

As I jogged this morning, I prayed for the Northwest Baptist Missions conference to begin today in Salt Lake City.  Around 3:00 pm, we were on our way out of town. 

 The Trip Down to SLC 

The Interstate from Idaho Falls to Salt Lake is interesting.  (1) I thought about Dennis and Melanie Rodgers, who just moved this past week to Shelley, Idaho, to serve as a church planting couple under the umbrella of Northwest Baptist Missions.  (2) Cruising through the lava lands, I thanked the Lord for another new young pastor, ministering at Calvary Bible Church in Blackfoot, Idaho. (3) Seeing the big Elko tourist billboards on I-15, I chuckled to myself, thinking of my good buddy, Aaron Young, who pastors Grace Baptist Church in that wild cowboy town. (4) And have you ever seen the big white cross on the interstate in front of Grace Lutheran Church as you enter Pocatello?  Every interstate in the country needs one of these.  For some good proclamation of the Word in Poky, go hear Colan Deatherage at Pocatello Baptist Church.  (5)  Just a little further down the road, I saw Inkom Community Bible Church.  And on past Devil’s Creek Reservoir and Malad, I noticed Calvary Baptist Church in Tremonton, Utah.  KJV-only preacher, Cooper Abrams, will preach the devil out of anyone. (6)  In Ogden, we stopped at a gas station Subway.  For five to ten solid minutes, a big guy (probably 6’8’’, I’m sure) peppered me with Judaism—he is training to be a rabbi.  At first, he thought I was a Mormon, so I gave him a HI4LDS business card.  For sure, friends, there are the teachings of one Rabbi that I am primed and pumped to hear!

Grace Baptist Church in West Valley City

Wow, I was a little taken back by the building of Grace Baptist Church when I arrived here in West Valley City.  First time for me to see this place.  I liked the main attraction—the towering cross—it grabbed my attention immediately. (more…)

Tomorrow, all my family will be heading down south for the Northwest Baptist Fellowship Meeting in Salt Lake City.

Matt Johnson(nice family picture on his blog) and his church family, Grace Baptist Church will be hosting the conference.

I look forward to seeing the new building they finished in West Valley City this summer. 

I am eager to hear the upcoming messages from the Word.

In fact, if you are curious about Baptist conferences in the heart of mainland Salt Lake, let me be a window for the next couple of days.  I will blog some highlights.

One day, I see my comment on this Times and Season thread, the next day it is gone.  Vanished in thin air.

I can see that some in the community there do not welcome or desire to listen to or hear me fully in regards to any of my heart conviction on the subject.  Frustrating.  (more…)

Peer in through this window to recollect the community spirit and the LDS church mobilization during a time of local disaster in Southeastern Idaho.

Today, it brings to my mind a lot of early childhood memories, too.

I have noticed from time to time Max Lucado books in LDS bookstores.  I don’t agree with everything Max writes, but I am curious about your input on his latest book.  I’m interested because of what the Lord has been teaching me about himself in John’s Gospel.  Here is an excerpt from 3:16 – The Numbers of Hope (Thomas Nelson, 2007):

John 3:16 offers you an identical promise.  The verse elevates Christ to thin-air loftiness, crowning him with the most regal of titles:  “One and Only Son.” (more…)

Isaiah 29:17-21

(17) Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest?  (18) And on that day the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of gloom [it is a masculine noun in 1QIsa^a, a feminine noun – MT] and darkness.  (19) The meek also will increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.  (20) For the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scoffer ceases, and all who watch for iniquity are cut off, (21) those who make a man an offender in his cause, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just with meaningless arguments.

 Heart Issues

Isn’t this what the righteous long for?  A complete reversal of the spiritual/sociological/psychological/political layout of the land.  Think of when Jesus first entered this world of darkness.  The blind saw for the first time.  The deaf could hear.  Christ worked the miraculous among the destitute.  And then he preached, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. . . . Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”  Jesus Christ preached about the requirements for entrance into the kingdom.  And someday in his kingdom, there will no more be political wickedness on this earth.  Joy will fill hearts because the scoffer who looks happily for evil’s influence will be cut off.  Deceitfully, the scoffer puts a man on trial for upholding Christ in his word and work.  The scoffer disrupts righteous government through his endless twisting and Christ-less speech.

Unfortunately, some Mormon men in the Mormon corridor accuse genuine evangelicals, who are passionate about the nature of Christ and who defend His word against the ideas of higher criticism, profuse redaction, and intentional manipulation of the text, as the scoffers “who make a [LDS] man an offender for a word” (KJV, Isa. 29:21).  This does not make a bit of sense to me.  How can a righteous defender who is sincerely concerned that no “precept of men” (Isa. 29:13) be added to the word—be charged that he is making another an offender for a word?  You cannot label a man a scoffer in the context of Isaiah 29:21 when his main cause is to uphold the Word of God as the final authority over men’s traditions. (more…)