Second Semester Begins
We are excited about the second semester of classes that started on January 18th. Brother Tommy Hensley preached in the opening chapel service and he brought a fine message to focus the students on serving the Lord. Brother Hensley is the Associate Pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Greenfield, IN where he directs the youth and young people’s ministry.
The semester began with a challenge for us to show a loving Christ to a needy world.
What a privilege it is to serve Him!
Heritage Baptist Bible Fellowship - 3rd Meeting
On January 16 & 17, Liberty Baptist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida hosted the first winter HBBF meeting. Dr. J.L. Lowe and his people made everyone feel welcome, and the tropical Florida weather lived up to its fame.
The preaching for the whole conference was excellent. On the final evening, the church folks treated their guests to a fresh caught seafood dinner (grouper or snapper). The meeting was concluded with a message by Dr. Al Janney, whose pioneer work in Christian Education has benefited so many.
The next meeting of the Heritage Baptist Bible Fellowship will take place at Heritage Baptist College, during Graduation Week (May 2 - 4, 2017).
Where are All the Riches?
In 2007, Benjamin S. Lovell walked into his bank. When the teller told him that his account balance was over 5 million dollars, he asked the teller several times “Are you sure?” Benjamin S. Lovell was skeptical. At 48 years old, the recently bankrupt salesman and his family lived with his mother in Brooklyn. Still he withdrew $10,000 that day. Over the next four weeks Benjamin withdrew over 2 million dollars from that account.
The Commerce Bank of Wilmington, DE had made a huge mistake, adding the New York salesman to the accounts of 57 year-old Philadelphia business mogul Benjamin A. Lovell. The error was realized 2 months later, and legal action with police investigations commenced.
After two years, the Courts ended up sentencing Benjamin S. Lovell to only probation, after he proved that on several occasions he had tried to notify the bank officials, who just dismissed him. The poor salesman was also a poor investor, and allegedly he lost much of the money in bad investments.
For the believer, our spiritual account is linked into heaven, and our Father wants the best for us. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:31-32. The Lord made no mistake. God gave to us the best of heaven...Jesus Christ.
An Influence of Love that Influenced a Nation
Sallie Devine walked into the store to have her shoes repaired. She watched the young man who mended her shoes, and soon they became friends. Sallie invited the young man to visit her Baptist church in their hometown of Hopkinton, Massachusetts.
John accepted Sallie’s invitation and went to hear the minister, Pastor Everett Jones. Pastor Jones had been physically persecuted as a preacher by the state authorities, prior to the American Revolution.
John became greatly convicted by the messages, eventually he was saved, and shortly afterwards he was called to preach. Before John moved to Virginia, the girl that had influenced him to attend church, became his wife, Mrs. Sallie Leland.
John Leland arrived in Virginia just as the nation started their quest for political freedom. He began to travel and preach, and in time he founded two thriving churches. During his early ministry, the Anglican church caused the governmental persecution of many Baptist preachers (Lewis Little in his book Imprisoned Preachers and Religious Liberty in Virginia lists 70 preachers that were persecuted, including Leland). Yet John Leland continued to preach, and during the 15 years that he ministered in Virginia, he baptized 700, and he became a leading patriotic citizen in the area around Orange Co. Virginia.
Yet his greatest contribution to America lay ahead.
As their friendship became more serious, Gus wrote to her father of his honorable intentions. The main problem that stood in the way of his happiness was finances. Gus was poor. Gussie's parents would not grant their permission for the marriage until he could show financial stability.
After the successful completion of the Revolutionary War, America struggled to construct a proper form of government for the nation. When the Constitution was offered for ratification, John Leland and other Baptists saw the flaw. There was no guarantee for religious freedom.
James Madison, the father of the Constitution, was seeking election in Leland’s strong hold, Orange Co. Many wanted John Leland to run for office to oppose the Constitution, based on its lack of individual rights.
Some of Leland’s biographers again credit Sallie with influencing her husband.
In a private meeting at their home, Preacher John Leland and James Madison discussed the need of protection for individual rights, specifically the freedom to worship. James Madison had been an advocate for the persecuted Baptists, and he understood their desire of "separation of church (denomination) and state."
After this earnest discussion, which took place outside under an oak tree, James Madison became convinced and promised to champion the addition of religious liberty and other freedoms to the Constitution.
John Leland withdrew from the election, and James Madison went on the next year to introduce the famous Bill of Rights, upon which the court's interpretation has generated so much controversy over the past fifty years. (Armstrong, O.K. & Marjorie. The Indomitable Baptists. New York: Doubleday & Co. 1967 p. 4–16)
Where would we be today without the Bill of Rights, which was influenced by a Baptist preacher, that was influenced by a godly lady named, Sallie?