Tampa First SDA Evangelism Newsletter for February

2008 is turning into an exciting year here at the Tampa First SDA Church! We are looking forward to ASI being here this year! We will be having several ASI Bible Workers doing evangelism in the community as well as meetings with speakers like Mark Finley and Shawn Boonstra. You can learn more about ASI here.

 

Our Discover Bible School is continuing to grow as we will be sending 10,000 Discover cards soon, offering free Bible studies through the mail.

Last week I recorded my latest video Bible Study on death. This video study mainly addresses the fact that the spirit that returns to God is simply our breath and goes on to explain what happens when we die. I also have six more studies on video you can check out. Since I am finding out that the golf instruction videos that help me the most are short and simple, I am trying to make my videos more short and simple as I go along too. I hope this makes them more helpful and effective.

 

Wednesday March 5 from 6-9pm we will be having a CPR class open to the community as well as church members. Call 813-933-7505 for more info. Later in March, don’t know the exact dates yet, Dr. Moses Dass will be presenting a “Five Day Stop Smoking Plan.”  Sunday, March 2 our “Sabbath Keepers Golf Association” will be having a tournament at the Lutz Executive Golf Center at 8:30am. We will have a devotional and prayer time before our match. Sunday, March 9 at 8:30am we will be meeting at the Mt. Calvary SDA Church to feed and minister to the homeless.

 

Our evangelism this year at Tampa First centers on the New Testament model for church and evangelism. We are studying the New Testament church, and copying the way they held church and also evangelized their communities. We have several small group Bible studies going on just like they had. We believe in the priesthood of all believers and are equipping and empowering all of our church family to be pastors and evangelists. Our youth are heavily involved in this too as we believe our youth are not just the church of tomorrow but also the church of today!

 

Since everyone is a pastor at Tampa First SDA, we have generic church business cards for all our members to share with those they come in contact with. The cards contain the church address, phone and website as well as some other Adventist related websites.

 

Speaking of our golf ministry earlier, we are getting more and more interests both in the church and even more importantly in the community. If you are interested in golfing with us please let me know at LayPastor@TampaAdventist.net. I am still working on my golf game but sometimes you could never tell. For example last Thursday I went at 7am to the Babe Zaharias golf course to walk 9 holes before going to work at 9am. I guess it was too early for me to be golfing because at the first tee I must have tried to tee off ten times, each time hitting it only 7 yards or so! I could not believe it. I wanted to start off with a decent hit so I kept trying over and over until I was afraid a worker for the golf course was going to come over and tell me this was not a driving range and for me to move on! I finally grabbed my 3 iron for the first time ever and hit the ball strait down the middle of the fairway about 130 yards. Not a great hit but much better than the 7 yards I had been getting with my driver! I stuck with my 3 iron for the 9 holes and while I did not get any great drives with it I did consistently fair which is better than what I got with my driver. After 9 holes I ended up with 53 strokes on a par 36. I share this so you will know you don’t have to be a pro to go golfing with me!

Never Give Up

I am writing from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

And you, being dead in your sins ….. hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Colossians 2:13

  

Friday’s section of this week’s SS lesson asks the question, “How can we help someone who is spiritually dead?”I must share an experience I had several years ago, early in my ministry that taught me to never give up. I was a Bible Worker in a small church in Oklahoma . For the sake of anonymity, I will name the following couple Joe and Jane. Joe had gone back to drinking and soon he and Jane both stopped coming to church. One night at prayer meeting someone reported that not only had they left the church for the world, but they even told us to stop praying for them. Of course we kept praying any way. After several weeks I finally found them at home. I thought I had talked them into at least letting me come back to study the Bible with them even if they would not come to church. We set a time for me to come back. When I returned, I was met at the door by Joe. He told me he could not study the Bible with me, because just the thought of reading the Bible made him so sick and depressed, that he could not stand it. So he sent me away. I walked back to my car fully convinced this man must have grieved the Holy Spirit away, since he had asked us not to pray for him, and even the thought of the Bible made him so sick. I decided if he had grieved the Spirit away, there was obviously no reason to contact him again, so I never did. I never saw Joe in church or anywhere else for that matter.

  

Three years later I was working in North Texas as a Bible Worker when I got a phone call from my mother. She wanted to know what set of Bible study guides I like to use. I told her the “Good News Study Guides” by Don Grey.  She told me she needed to get some study guides because my father and she had just begun some Bible Studies with Joe and Jane. I could not believe it! First of all my parents don’t normally give Bible studies, and I thought Joe had grieved away the Holy Spirit with his drinking and constant rebellion. While studying with my parents, Joe left his drinking and rebellion and a few weeks later both he and his wife were re-baptized! I called my parents before writing this story. They tell me Joe and Jane continue to be faithful members ten years later.

  

I believe God used my parents to study with them so that I would be aware of this happy ending for two reasons. 1. To show me I should never give up on anyone. 2. To show me what He was able to accomplish with absolutely no help from me. God is able to work His greatest miracles when I am nowhere in the picture. 

  

I was a young Bible Worker back then with a lot to learn. I have since learned to follow Jesus’ example in all I do. The reason I never give up on anyone now is simply this-Jesus left me with no example on how to give up. He never taught us to give up, never talked about giving up, never thought of giving up. Even if someone seams spiritually dead we do not need to stop praying and give up. Jesus raises the dead! “Even when we were DEAD in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved.  Ephesians 2:5