This past week was one of great challenge and great rejoicing. I had the opportunity to attend the annual Pastor's School at First Baptist Church in Hammond IN.This would be the second time I had an oportunity to attend and it would be one of the most awesome experiences in my life. This years theme was focused on Marriage and the Family.
First Baptist Church is Pastored by the man to my Left. He is Dr. Jack Schaap. This man has not only taken a ministry further than where it was before, but in my opinion has a heart for people that was allowed to be communicated through his preaching and through the speakers he choose for his main sessions. Dr. Jack Hyles, his father in law, choose him to assume the Pastorate when he retired. Instead of it happening the way Dr. Hyles originally planned, he was elected to Pastor First Baptist Church after his father in law passed away. Since then he has built a new building, seen more souls saved, and allowed God to continue to grow the ministry as He sees fit. I am truly happy this ministry continued on and great conferences like Pastor's School still continues. Pastor's School this year was for me a great challenge and full of wonderful excitement.
One of this years Key speakers was Dr. Tom Williams. What great preaching we heard from this man, but what you may not realize is what a great man of prayer he is. This man prays on average of eight to ten hours a day!How low I felt when he said this. We so often wrestle to pray for fifteen or thirty minutes and here we have man who dedicates his life to be a life of prayer. It was so exciting to have my heart challenged and determine that I want to do more for God than I ever have before One of the greatest experiences in my life was to hear this man preach and then see and HEAR what decisions were going on.
After Dr. Williams preached he offered an invitation to whomever would be willing to say, "I want to know God better. I want to talk to him more. I want to be more in tune with God." I knelt and while God was dealing with my heart, I stopped praying and listened. Listened to all the tears that were being shed. The weeping from people that have realized that they want to do more for God. How exciting it was to see a room full of Pastors, Evangelists, Teachers, etc. on their knees and saying "I Want More Of You God!" I will say, I have never heard such a sound, but I am sure glad I did. I want more of my God. I want to know him!!!!
2 comments:
I'll take more about Jesus but you can keep your three-ringed circus every third week in March! I spent over 20 years under the Hyles regime and that is 20 years too many. God bless you as you clear the cobwebs from this past PS. I certainly pray that you let Dr. Binney's Biblical teaching sink in--I do respect him very much. I am going to bookmark your blog--I like it a lot!
Matt
I believe that Matthew is 100% correct. Our focus on this life is about one thing and it is the Lord. The thing I praise God for was the opportunity for these two great men, Dr. Williams and Dr. Binney, to teach such great truths on a large scale. I believe that there is a lot of man worship that exists today, but I believe that I Corinthians 1: 12-17 says it all when it comes to worshiping the man and not the God. While I don’t necessarily agree with everything that comes out of First Baptist Church in Hammond, I do praise God for the opportunity to hear these men again. I believe the truths given were so powerful you had no choice to kneel and say God you are Holy, make me more like you! Like I concluded my post, I want more…of God. I want to know him better!!!
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