Harvest Blog

We are soon to see another year come to an end. How quickly time flies by. James speaks of the brevity of life: “For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little, and then vanisheth away.” (From James 4:14) As an elderly man that has seen many years fly by, I can agree with James that life moves so rapidly that it seems to have been only a little puff of steam out of the kettle and then gone. May we take life very seriously in 2010. We need to make every day and every hour count for the Lord. Paul told us to “Redeem the time because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:16) How true!—we are living in very evil days. We believers are here because God has placed us here. We are to be a testimony for the Lord—and thereby we must “Keep ourselves in the love of God” having “compassion that makes a difference” and that will lead us to “save others with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” (From Jude 21-23)

Tomorrow night we have our New Year’s Eve service at Harvest Baptist Church, beginning at 7:00 P.M. We will have some short messages by two of our teenagers. That should be a great blessing to all of us. Then we will see a tremendous film entitled “Fireproof”—a film that will challenge our lives in our homes and in our individual testimonies. And we will cap off the evening with some refreshments . I can’t think of a better way to end the old year and to begin the new one by being in attendance at the House of God where we have opportunity to hear the Word of God. Let’s have a good crowd tomorrow night.

Last Sunday we were blessed with Pastor Musgrave’s sermon in the morning as the preached from 1 Peter 2:1-3. We were challenged to grow spiritually. That should be our challenge for the New Year of 2010.

Continue to pray for Marge Lamoreaux and David Head who continue to face difficult physical problems.

I do encourage you all to be in Sunday School and Church at Harvest Baptist Church next Sunday. Remember, we start a new Adult Homebuilders’ Class as part of our Adult Bible Study at 9:30 A.M. Pastor Musgrave will be teaching this class, and it promises to afford great blessing for all who get involved. Start the New Year right by being in Sunday School and Church on Sunday morning, January 3.

Yours and His,

Pastor Nelson

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I am writing this on Christmas Eve. What a beautiful day this is after the storm of yesterday

I write to remind you that we have our Christmas Eve Service tonight at 6:00 P.M. It will not be a long service. It should be an hour or less.

We had a great day last Sunday with a record attendance since I have been pastor. In the evening we had one of our preacher boys from Tucson speak—Jeremy Carpenter. It was a great blessing to hear this young man preach.

We trust you can all be with us next Sunday morning, when Pastor Josh will be preaching. Until then have a Joyous and Blessed Christmas, exalting the Lord Jesus Christ Whose Birthday we celebrate. Ps. 99:5 & 9

Yours and His,

Ed Nelson, Pastor

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We had a blessed day last Sunday. Shame on me—I am not sure of the attendance, but we again had the auditorium filled.. David Head, who usually counts our attendance, was too ill to be present; therefore, as afar as I know, no accurate count was made. The reason it was a special day was that we had our Children’s Christmas Program, “The Christmas Story”. It was excellent. The children did well. We had various visitors, having come to hear children or grandchildren as they presented the program. Pastor Josh followed up the program with a good message from the first chapter of 1 Peter. In the Evening Service I spoke on “The Martyr Seal”, a message from Rev. 6:9-11, the Scripture that presents the opening of the fifth seal.

At this Christmas Season, let’s all be sure we do not get so busy with the commercial side of Christmas that we forget the real meaning of Christmas. The birth of Christ was essential to the effectiveness of the cross. You see, for the sacrifice of Calvary to redeem us from sin, it had to be a perfect sacrifice, which could only be accomplished by the Son of God Himself. For Christ to be that perfect sacrifice, He had to be virgin born, the seed being that of the Holy spirit placed in the womb of Mary. The doctrine of the Virgin Birth is absolutely essential to our understanding of what Christ accomplished at Calvary. Without the Virgin Birth there could be no redemption from sin, no forgiveness for sin, and, therefore, no reconciliation with God—this means Jesus had to be born of a virgin in order for us to have salvation. Oh, that we could all meditate on this wonderful truth as we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ.

We trust you will be able to be with us next Sunday as we continue to meditate on the meaning of Christmas.

Remember that we have boxes in the foyer to collect food items that can be given to needy families. Be sure to bring them Sunday. We will be delivering the boxes on Monday, December 21.

And don’t forget our Christmas Eve Service on Thursday, December 24, at 6:00 P.M. This would be a good time to invite friends and neighbors to our Church. They would probably attend Christmas Eve Service when they would not attend a regular church service.

Pray for those who are ill.
1. David Head He is having severe pain from a knee injury. He was to have special tests today to help doctors know the correct treatment.

2. Will Kroeker Early Sunday Morning Will was taken to the hospital for a severe stomach problem. Terey said of him that he was in pain like she had never seen him before. The doctors said that he had an enlarged esophagus that was letting food into the stomach too fast and too soon. They said that this could mean that this might lead to cancer. He did get to come home Sunday and rest. But Monday night he had another attack. We have not heard further today. The doctors are considering surgery to remedy the problem. He is in great need of prayer right now. They had hoped that maybe they could delay the surgery until after Christmas when some of their family is coming to visit them. But now, they feel the surgery is very probably a necessity as soon as possible.

Yours and his,

Pastor Nelson

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Harvest Children’s Program part 1

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Last Sunday we had a snow storm and our attendance was down. We realized that some of you would have had difficulty getting to church.

We had a good Missions conference. The services with Dr. Steadman and two missionaries were held Sunday, Nov. 29 through Wednesday, Dec. 2. Dr. John Hutcheson preached the final service of our Missions Conference on Sunday Morning, Dec. 6. During the Sunday School hour, he spoke on persecution of believers in other countries. Then he brought an excellent message on living by faith and faith promise missions. We received our Faith Promise for Missions Cards at the close of the service. As I mentioned above, the attendance was very small last Sunday. Actually we received only five Faith Promise Cards. I was thrilled with the fact that those five cards promised $8,920 for Missions through Harvest Baptist Church for 2010! ! There are many of you who were not present and thus unable to turn in a card. Therefore we are extending the time for receiving these cards through the next two Sundays, Dec. 13 and Dec. 20. We encourage yo to bring a card with you this Sunday or be prepared to receive a card in the services, to fill it out, and then to turn it in to add to our present figure of almost $9,000. Last year our Faith Promise was $14,000. Now, I am believing we might be able to increase that figure by almost 30% to $18,000 for 2010. I had planned to send you a snail mail letter today enclosing a card and also a Christmas Offering envelope. But my printer quit on me this morning and I cannot seem to get it back to working. Therefore, you may not receive that letter in your mail tomorrow as I had hoped.

In the paragraph above, I mentioned the Christmas Offering Envelopes. Let me tell you what those are and for what purpose we will use them. Our Arise and Build Campaign had a goal of having received $15,000 for the Building Fund as of last Sunday. However, we were short $500, having received only $14,500. The goal as set for the entire month of December was that we will have received $15,000 in the Building Fund by the end of December. To do this we are planning to receive a special Christmas Offering, 2009. We are using Christmas Offering envelopes for the purpose. We will be handing out these envelopes in all the rest of the services in December. We will appreciate your praying about what you can give to the Lord this Christmas in our Arise and Build Campaign. Every thing received in this Christmas Offering will be placed in our Building Fund. In the balance of December, we need to receive $3,500 in order to reach our goal of $18,000 by the end of December.

Remember that this Sunday Morning we will have our Children’s Christmas Program. To prepare for that there will be a practice tomorrow, Saturday, December 5, at 10:30 A.M. Be sure to have your children present for this practice. And the children will have a lunch after the practice.

Last Sunday night’s Cantata “Holy Night of Miracles” was a great blessing The Highlands Baptist Church Choir ministered to our hearts in singing this wonderful musical presentation. The Cantata certainly brought glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. We did have visiting families attend this program. Thanks goes to Highlands Baptist Church and its choir.

Personals:
Marge Lamoreaux has been in the hospital this week. The doctors used two stints to stop blockages in a vein and in an artery. This procedure was done on Wednesday. She may get to come home today. In their examination of her, they found that she has had a hole in her heart, possibly from birth. The doctors do believe she has had a recent heart attack. She definitely needs our prayers.

David Head is waiting for Workman’s Compensation to inform him of what they will do concerning his recent job-related injury. He is not able to work and will possibly be facing surgery. He is suffering great pain and needs prayer for his healing.

God bless you. We will be looking to see you next, Sunday, December 13.

Yours and His,

Ed Nelson, Pastor

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We closed the first section of our Missions conference last night./ It was an outstanding conference. The messages by Dr. Steadman were tremendous. They comprised a series dealing with the Glorious Gospel of Christ from 1 Corinthians chapters 1,2,& 3. The missionaries, Kevin Thompson and Ben Shore, proved to be a great blessing to those who had the privilege of hearing them.

We will have another speaker next Sunday, December 6. His message on Sunday morning will be the final message of the Conference. Sunday, Dec. 6, is our Faith Promise Sunday. We will be receiving the Faith Promise to Missions cards at the close of the service.

We have an additional treat coming on Sunday night. We are moving our service to the Event Center at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. It will begin at 6:00 P.M. and will feature the Highlands Baptist Church Choir presenting the Christmas Cantata, “Holy Night of Miracles”. Do plan to be with us this Sunday night for this special Christmas blessing.

I remind you that on Friday, December 4, there will be a viewing for the Jan Waters Memorial Service at the Olinger Mortuary, 407 Perry St., Castle Rock, from 4:00 to 7:00 P.M.

The Memorial Service will be Saturday, December 5, at 10:00 A.M. at the Olinger Mortuary with burial at the Cedar Hills Cemetery, Castle Rock, Cemetery immediately following the service, and there will be an Open House Reception for those able to attend at 12:00 Noon, right after we leave the cemetery.

This “Open House”, will last from 12:00 Noon to 2:30 P.M., and the location will be very close to the cemetery at the Waters home, 659 Millbrook Circle. I understand Rick has prepared maps so that you will be able to drive to these locations. I encourage you to honor the memory of Jan and help give comfort to the family by attending these special times.

I look forward to seeing you at these various events coming up this week end.

Yours and His,

Ed Nelson

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