April 2013

The Trumpet

The Trumpet is a monthly paper offered to the good folks of Faith Bible Baptist, ToledoOhio, and is the work of the pastor.  He assembles the articles and edits them as a ministry to his church.  We offer it to those who read our Web Site but in a different format than is presented to the Church.  The purpose, is simple, to generate spiritual thought, and to encourage spiritual discussion within the body.  Where credit can be given, it is, but there is no claim of originality.  Further, the Trumpet is an avenue of current and future events scheduled for The Faith Bible Baptist Church of Toledo.

May the Lord bless you as you read this months issue of The Trumpet.

Pastor Tim Goodman

April 2013

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When Things Don’t Go As Planned 

“Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”  (Joshua 1:9)

Anything out of our control is in the will of God.

A long-time actress and comedienne once received a small, live alligator as a gag.  Not knowing what to do with it, she placed it in the bathtub and then left for an appointment.  When she returned home, she found this note from her maid: “Dear Miss Allen: Sorry, but I have quit. I don’t work in houses where there is an alligator. I would have told you this when I took on, but I never thought it would come up.”

Do you ever feel as if there’s an alligator in your bathtub?  Things come into your life that you hadn’t planned for and now you are stuck in a situation without guidance.  Let’s look at a few Bible characters who faced situations that weren’t in their plans.

First, notice the story of Joseph in Genesis 37:28, “Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.”  If there were a person who could have gotten angry with the Lord, it was Joseph.  But he didn’t; he faithfully continued obeying God even in slavery.

Second, notice Daniel in Daniel 1:3, 6, “And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes; Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.”  Daniel was a godly young man who was captured by Babylon and forced to serve the king.  While Daniel could have become bitter, he followed God even during captivity.

Last, notice the story of Esther in Esther 2:8–9, “So it came to pass, when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was brought also unto the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. And the maiden pleased him…”  Esther could have protested her marriage to the king, yet she obeyed God’s plan for her life.

Each one of these people could have claimed they had a right to question God.  They all faced unimaginable circumstances that could have led them to doubt the Lord, yet notice how God’s hand was evident in each circumstance.  Joseph rose to a place of prominence in Egypt and was used by God to preserve the people during a famine.  Daniel became a prince and his obedience to God affected the heart of the king.  And Esther’s submissiveness allowed God to use her to save the Jews from slaughter.

Think of a situation in your life that seems unplanned.  Rather than questioning God, ask yourself this, “What is God preparing me for through this circumstance?”  Take time to humbly submit to God’s will right now.  Give Him control during unexpected times and watch as He shows you His perfect work through your situation.

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Parson to Person

Last month I spoke of encouraging you to be faithful to each service particularly through the month of March as I was going to preach the series “Journey to Calvary.”  I said, “Nothing builds excitement in a church like a steady stream of visitors.”  Indeed that is so, although we didn’t have that steady stream of visitors until the last Sunday of the series.  Easter brought us eighteen visitors.  “It was fun wasn’t it!”

As we were in the midst of our five week series it was needful for me to announce that we had three families leaving us.  It is always sad when people leave.  You can’t help but to take it personal.  Many times when someone leaves a church it doesn’t have anything to do with doctrine or church policy.  It’s usually personality conflicts.  Often in an attempt to mollify ourselves we chalk it up as a “Spiritual Problem,” on their end.  Although that’s not always true nor is it fair to them.  The truth of it is that it’s often a number of reasons for someone to come to the conclusion to leave church (As it is in this occasion.)  I will not here list the reasons for these folks decision to leave our church.  Suffice to say they have chosen to leave our church and it’s up to us to fill their spot with new members.  We need to get out there and do “the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4:5).  So often people will come to the pastor and say, “Pastor, I have been so burdened for Bro. and Sis. _______. I am so burdened that I can’t sleep at night.”  They will then add, “Will you go visit them and try to encourage them?”  Hey!  I have a, novel idea, why don’t you call on them before you ask someone else to do it!

We need some church members like Uncle Buddy Robinson (1860-1942).  Listen to his prayer, “Oh Lord, give me a backbone as big as a sawlog, ribs like the sleepers under the church floor, put iron shoes on me and galvanized breeches, give me a rhinoceros hide for a skin, and hang a wagonload of determination up in the gable-end of my soul, and help me to sign the contract to fight the devil as long as I’ve got a fist and bite him as long as I have a tooth, then gum him till I die. All this I ask for Christ’s sake. Amen.”  Would to God we could be an Uncle Buddy Robinson.

There is a reason that God may test us sometimes.  Sometimes it is so that we can learn something from the testing.  Beloved faith is always tested.  This is just one of those test that God is allowing us to go through.  Remember when God called Abraham to live by faith, He tested him in order to increase his faith.  God always tests us to bring out our best.

The ultimate truth of the matter is this: there are no valid reasons for forsaking Christ and His Church—only lame excuses!  And Jesus made it very plain: excuses will carry no weight in the day of reckoning (Luke 14:18).  “And they all with one consent began to make excuse… ”

I want to say again thank you for your faithfulness.  Without you Linda and I would not be able to serve the Lord very well here at Faith.  We love you all very much.  May the Lord Bless our efforts together for Him!

Pastor Tim Goodman

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Have Faith 

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”  (Luke 18:6-8)

Even the unbeliever looks to heaven for help in time of need, but he has no faith.

Faith and prayer used to be a common occurrence in our world. In fact, a 1990 study stated that fifty-two million Americans attended a Christian church on a given weekend. Sixteen years after the initial study, those attendance numbers seem about the same, even though the population of America had grown by over fifty million people.

Prayers were common at places such as public meetings, graduations services, and public events. The reason prayer has seemingly taken a back seat in our nation is not because of national failure to pray but personal failure to pray. God has promised to answer our requests, provide help, supply wisdom, forgive offenses, and protect the weak; yet how often do we take advantage of His willingness to help us?

Christ finished His parable about the unjust judge by pointing out that even a judge who didn’t fear God or man was willing to help the widow simply to keep her from annoying him. If even a self-centered judge was willing to help, how much more is the just Judge of heaven willing to help His children?

God is more than willing to intervene in your life and help you. In fact, He’s waiting for you to ask Him to do so. The Psalmist understood God’s willingness to help, and took full advantage of God’s protection, “Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none. The Lord is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land. Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress” (Psalm 10:15-18).

Truthfully, some of us are good at calling out to God for help. We make our needs known to Him quite often, yet think about the question Jesus asks in Luke 18:8, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Will Christ find faith in your heart?

Prayer is more than simply an expression of desires or needs. It is the act of thanking rather than complaining. It is rejoicing in God’s work, accepting His will, and believing that He will accomplish what is best in your life. Prayer is an expression of faith in God.

Anyone can cry out for help. Even unbelievers look to the heavens for help in times of need. Yet true faith comes from believing God will answer your prayer and that His answer is enough for you.

Will God find faith in your life? The question could also be asked, will you quit believing God can answer your prayer? Yes, seek God for help and cry out for His power, but have faith that He will answer your prayer and that His answer will be what’s best.

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Baptists We Should Know

John Roach Straton

The Fundamentalist’s Pope

By Thomas Ray

John Roach Straton was one of the most flamboyant and controversial preachers of the 20^th century.  He was born in 1875 into a Baptist pastor’s home.  When young Straton was 18 he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to study law.  During this period of Straton’s life he embraced humanism and evolutionary concepts.  The result of his new beliefs left him morally and spiritually bankrupt.

Straton experienced a spiritual transformation when he attended a revival service at First Baptist Church.  Shortly after his conversion he enrolled in Mercer University.  Straton possessed natural oratorical skills, receiving two gold medals for winning the Georgia and the Southern Intercollegiate Oratorical Championships.  In 1898, having completed his studies, the university appointed him to teach Elocution and Oratory.  In 1900, he enrolled in Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY.  After completing his elective studies, he was hired as professor of oratory and Interpretation of Literature at Baylor University.

Straton was too much of an activist, however, to remain in the classroom.  In 1905, he began his pastoral ministry serving churches in Chicago, Baltimore, and Norfolk, VA.  When Straton began his pastoral ministry he was committed to post-millennialism and the social gospel.  He was firmly convinced that the church was destined to usher in the Golden or Millennial Age.  But the First World War and the realities of man’s sinfulness convinced him that the only hope for mankind was the transforming power of the gospel.

In 1918, Straton became the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in New York City.  Straton believed that preachers were prophets and it was their responsibility to expose society’s sins.  He saw New York City as a leader in the moral and spiritual decay of America.  He began immediately to expose what he believed were the consequences of this decay.  He attacked the illegal sale of alcohol, prostitution, political corruption, the modern theatre, sexual immorality, and the modernism he believed was destroying the Northern Baptist Convention.  However, Straton’s tactics were not without their drawbacks.  The press often emphasized the negative and dramatic side of issues and neglected his positive redemptive message.  Hostile journalists and cartoonists dipped their pens in acid and satirized Straton as “the Fundamentalist’s Pope,” the “Witch Doctor of Gotham,” and the “Meshuggah (Yiddish for crazy) of Manhattan.”  Some disgruntled church members objected to his bold course and charged him with sensationalism.

None of these attacks deterred Straton.  He believed the phenomenal growth of the church justified his methods.  One of Straton’s most successful and controversial methods was his public debates.  His most famous debate was with Dr. Charles Francis Potter, a former Baptist who had become a Unitarian pastor.  The interest in the debates was so great that Madison Square Garden had to be rented to accommodate the crowds.  The judges declared the debates a draw, but every impartial person acknowledged that Straton was the clear winner.

Straton’s reputation as a debater and lecturer gained him invitations to debate or to lecture at Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, and numerous other colleges and universities.  In 1928, Al Smith, former governor of New York and a Catholic, was the Democratic nominee for president.  Straton strongly opposed Smith, not because of his religious beliefs but because of his association with the corrupt Tammany Hall political machine.  Straton travelled throughout the South speaking against Smith and his politics.  Smith lost the election and much of the credit was attributed to the efforts of Straton and his friends J. Frank Norris and W. B. Riley.  However, his constant speaking and exposure to the elements left him physically and mentally exhausted.  He suffered a fatal heart attack and died October 29, 1929.  He was only 54 years old.

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Forgive as He Has Forgiven You 

“And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death. And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”  (Luke 23:32–34)

Your forgiveness of others must not be based on their actions toward you, but on Christ’s action toward you.

The great pastor of yesteryear, Andrew Murray, once wrote out this prayer to God:

To forgive like Thee, blessed Son of God! I take this as the law of my life. Thou who hast given the command, givest also the power. Thou who hadst love enough to forgive me, wilt also fill me with love and teach me to forgive others. Thou who dist give me the first blessings, in the joy of having my sins forgiven, wilt surly give me the second blessing, and deeper joy of forgiving others as thou hast forgiven me. Oh, fill me with the faith in the power of thy love in me, to make me like Thyself, to enable me to forgive the seventy times seven, and so to love and bless all around me.

O My Jesus, Thy example is my law: I must be like Thee. And Thy example is my gospel too. I can be as Thou art. Thou art at once my law and my life. What Thou demandest of me by Thy example, Thou workest in me by Thy life. I shall forgive like Thee.

Lord, only lead me deeper into my dependence on Thee, into all sufficiency of Thy grace and the blessed keeping which comes from Thy indwelling. Then shall I believe and prove the all-prevailing power of love. I shall forgive even as Christ has forgiven me. Amen.

Forgiveness is sometimes the hardest thing to do in life. It is not natural and is not easily accomplished, for to forgive is to humble oneself and release bitterness and hurt. When wronged or hurt, we naturally feel the desire for revenge or feel bitterness, but God desires us to ignore those feelings and forgive as He has forgiven us.

How unconditional is Christ’s forgiveness? Consider the scene at Calvary for a minute. Among the common criminals was Jesus, a man who had done no wrong and yet was sentenced to death. In the midst of the pain and suffering He felt, the Lord begged His Father for the forgiveness of His accusers. What He spent His life preaching, He acted out in His last moments on earth.

Jesus’ death on the Cross is the ultimate picture of forgiveness. He bore what He did not deserve and willingly forgave the sins committed against Him.

How do you handle injustices in your life? Do you lash out in anger and bitterness, or do you forgive as Christ has forgiven you? Your forgiveness of others should not be based on their actions toward you, but on Christ’s action toward you.

Examine your heart for any bitterness right now. If you haven’t yet forgiven someone, make that right today. Call, email, write, or visit them and forgive them because God has forgiven you each time that you have sinned against Him.

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How to Become a

Member of

Faith Bible Baptist Church

By Profession of Faith and Baptism

If you will receive Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour and follow Him in baptism by immersion, we welcome you into our fellowship.

By Letter

As a Baptist whose church membership is elsewhere, if God directs you here we will be pleased to welcome you into our church family.  We will happily take care of appropriate details for transferring your membership.

By Baptism

If you know in your heart that you have been saved and want to become a member of FaithBibleBaptistChurch, we invite you to join us by baptism.  This gives testimony of your salvation and your obedience to His direction.

By Statement of Faith

In the event church membership records are not available for a transfer of membership, or if you were once a Baptist church member, we will accept you upon your statement of faith.

You may express your desire to fulfill any of the above by presenting yourself during the invitation at the close of each worship service.  Of course, any decision assumes your commitment to being faithful in prayer, church attendance, tithing and participation in our Lord’s work at FaithBibleBaptistChurch.

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