So which one of these is correct?  Well, I would have to say both are correct and both are wrong and both do not fully address the topic of salvation as a whole.  The real question that needs to be addressed here is “What is salvation?”.  Is salvation the process by which you are made innocent before God or is it the transformation of a life that brings about purity and holiness.  I think there is biblical support for both of these positions, as well as others, which is why I conclude that a holistic view of salvation is one that touches on earthly living as well as the relational status with God.  If you think going forward to accept Jesus as savior at some revival meeting, church camp, or vacation bible school was the finish line of your spiritual quest…think again.  The Bible makes it clear that when you sincerely trust in Jesus as savior, something does immediately happen.  You are immediately justified.  You go from a guilty status in God’s courtroom to an innocent status.

So yes, salvation in one sense is immediate.  You are immediately saved against the wrath of God.  You are immediately placed into God’s family.  You are instantly given the Holy Spirit within you who will guide and direct you.  But no you aren’t perfect.  How many Christians are still self centered, greedy, gluttonous, lazy, lustful, idolatrous (putting more time, money, and effort into hobbies, careers, etc, than into God’s work), etc?  All of them are which means that salvation’s work is not complete.  To be saved from these evil actions is the other part of salvation, the part that is not immediate.  The Bible teaches us that we “Christians” have been predestined or foreordained to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29).  That means if you are a Christian, you will one day look like Jesus but if you are honest with yourself, right now you don’t. That means you’ve got work to do.  The bible also says to work out your salvation (Phil 2:12).  Why if it’s already complete?  It’s NOT!  You have maturity to go through so stop living life as if you are spiritually full and finished because Jesus might have something else to say about you similar to his critique of the Church of Laodicea in Rev 3:17.  They thought the work was finished but Jesus said that they were wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked…AND THEY DIDN’T EVEN SUSPECT IT.  Don’t fool yourself!  Let your prayer be “Lord thank you for saving me, but continue to change me so that I might become more like your Son Jesus Christ, that I might experience salvation in its full meaning..Amen”.

Greg Crawford

July 4th Sunday will be our New Time Change date …Whoop ee! I want to encourage you to support this effort to temporally move our services to an earlier time. I truly believe this new change can help us to have more in attendance through the summer. So remember… on July 4th Sunday, morning worship will start at 9:00 am followed by 10:15 to 11:00 Bible Study. This will give you more time to enjoy your family activities and still be able to come to worship. So invite your friends and remind everyone you know.

July also begins our new financial Church year. God has been really good to us in the past year. We seen Him meet our every need and you have been faithful as a church to give and share. I want to call on you to continue to do so. We have a new staff person and God already is blessing His work in so many ways. I know also that for some finances are more difficult this year than in past times. My prayer is for all of us to be faithful in lean times as well as the good. I am confident that when we do our part, God always is faithful to do His. (Malachi 3:10)

WOW!! Have you noticed how God has been blessing us with some wonderful folks joining our Church? I feel blessed and honored that others would want to be a part of God’s vision for us at Farmington Baptist. Let’s pray that God’s blessings will continue in this area.

Bro Preston

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Would you rather have a $1,000 a day for 31 days, or have one penny today, two pennies tomorrow, four pennies the next day and continue doubling each day for 31 days?  If you chose option number one, you must not like money very much or either you have underestimated the power of multiplication.  At the end of one month you would have $31,000 with option one but if you took the penny, after 31 days you would have approximately $21.5 million.  If you take a piece of paper and fold it over 50 times (if that was possible) how tall would it be?  As tall as a phone book?  As tall as a refrigerator?  Actually it is a proven fact that it would reach from  the Earth to the Sun!!  So what does all of this mean.  Multiplication is much more powerful than addition.

Many of us give up on evangelism because we feel we can’t reach a significant number of people for Christ.  That’s okay.  In fact, your dedication to a few people may be even more powerful than those who spread themselves too thin preaching to large crowds.  If you were to spend your life witnessing to three people, and then training them to reach people themselves (see 2 Timothy 2:2) than you could reach people in numbers as amazing as the statistics given above.  If you reach three people and they reach three people and those three go on to reach three people, you’ve already reached almost 40 people in no time.  If that trend continues, your witness to three people could reach the entire world within a few waves.  Be diligent in your small ministry because small ministries make the difference.

Bro. Greg

• Sunday Night:
  • 5:00 – Youth Social and Pizza
  • 6:00 – Evening Revival Service
• Monday Night:
  • 6:00 – Young Adults Social and Grill Meal
  • 7:00 – Evening Revival Service
• Tuesday Night:
  • 6:00 – Adult Social with Soup and Sandwiches
  • 7:00 – Evening Revival Service
• Wednesday Night:
  • 6:00 – Kids Social and Fun Meal
  • 7:00 – Evening Revival Service

   It is so easy to be caught up in the moods of our times.  Yes our economy is difficult and yes there is a pessimism that tends to permeate our thinking. But as the redeemed offspring of the Risen Lord, we have a message of and assurance.  Early Christians had to walk that line between the hardships and difficulties of their times and the reality of Christ’s blessings, hope and grace.

   Was the Apostle Paul wrong when he tells us to “Rejoice in the Lord,” (Phil. 3:1, 4:4).  To Rejoice… to share your joy, is such an important part of our testimony of faith in Jesus. Note what Peter says in 1Peter 4:12-14 about our joy.

   Difficult times are real but so is the joy we find in Jesus Christ.  His joy will sustain us in bad times and the good. One of our tasks is to share this new perspective with the world around us.

   Maybe you are like me…  I need to renew my own Christian perspective from time to time.  We call this Revival.  I need it and perhaps you do as well I hope you will do your very best to attend every Revival service.  .  I believe that you will really like Dr. Turner our Evangelist.  He is a down to earth guy with a heart for God’s people. God has special word for us in each service.  It is my desire that several will one day look back on these Revival services and say that that was when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior I hope to see you there.

Bro. Preston

March is going to be a busy and strategic month for us. We have time change, Spring Break, Easter and a host of other things. Most importantly will be our Spring Revival beginning on the last Sunday of the month. I hope you will set aside that time in your schedules. The Theme for our Revival is “Live With Urgency.” These are urgent times. We as a church need a Revival awakening if we are going to have an impact in our community and world. People in America are becoming more alienated from Christ than ever before in my lifetime. People are lost, hurting, and ignorant to the purposes of God. There is a real need for Revival!!

Dr. Emil Turner will be the Evangelist for our Revival. He was born and received most of his education in Louisiana. He and his wife Mary have two children, Joel and Jonathan. He has served pastorates in Louisiana, Kentucky, and Arkansas. He worked with Campus Crusade for Christ as Campus Director for a number of years and now he serves us as the Executive Director for the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. He is an excellent preacher and will challenge us with God’s Word every Service. Plan, prepare, and pray for God to pour out his blessings on us.

Bro Preston

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Faith Journey Fellowship

In our last Business meeting our Church voted to be the sponsoring church for a new Church-start in Northwest Arkansas. This church and pastor have a desire to be a part of Southern Baptist work in North West Arkansas. Since this church has already been in existence for about a year, our sponsorship with involves only encouragement and prayer support.

Bro. David Hastings is the pastor. He and his wife Sandy and their 5 children have committed themselves to serve this church in a full time capacity. The church is presently meeting in a school building in Lowell and is already having 60 to 70 people each Sunday in attendance. Their primary focus will be toward young to middle-aged adults of medium income. They already have a couple of part time staff serving in Music and Youth. I hope you will put this church and pastor on your personal prayer list.

Learn more about them by visiting their Web site

www. faithjourney.us

 I don’t know the full answer but I believe it and by faith I accept His love as my precious gift.  Some of you are aware that I have 2 nearly new Grand Daughters.  They are last year’s model but they have no dents. Also the engine and paint is still good.  As a matter of fact we haven’t quite got them broke in yet, this may take a few years.  As I look at those new born babies I notice that they seem to be crying or sleeping, they require a lot attention from needing to be fed to changing diapers, and their communication tends to only relate the idea of “I want this or I need this and NOW!”  Yet as I watch their tired and worn out parents I see a great love for those precious little babies.  It is an awesome sight.  

I wonder if that is how God sees us?   We whine a lot, need a lot of attention, we are self-absorbed and our communication to God tends to be in the realm of, “I want!”

I am so glad that God has a Father’s love for us.

John 3:16

Bro Preston

It is the New Year again, 2008. Several memorable events occurred in history on January 1^st… in 1862 the first US income tax was instituted, in 1908 was the first time a ball signifying new year was dropped at Times Square, in 1928 the first US air-conditioned office building opened in San Antonio, in 1946 Emperor Hirohito of Japan announces he is not a god, 1947 Arkansas ties LSU, 0-0 at the Cotton Bowl, and 1954 the Rose & Cotton Bowl are the first sports Colorcasts.

I wonder what kind of “first events” will occur this New Year. It is hard to predict. Oh, there have in past times been some great predictions for the future: “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” — Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp. “There is practically no chance communications space satellites will be used to provide better telephone, telegraph, television, or radio service inside the United States.” — T. Craven, FCC Commissioner, in 1961. “Nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality in 10 years.” -– Alex Lewyt, president of Lewyt Corp. 1955. “The cinema is little more than a fad… What audiences really want to see is flesh and blood on the stage.” -– Charlie Chaplin. “The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad.” — The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer.

I have a prediction about the coming year. I predict that through out 2008 God will still be in control of the universe and every one who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. In an uncertain and ever changing world the one constant is our Lord and God. As I realize these truths I am reminded again that the message of Jesus Christ is truly the Good News which all the world needs to hear.

Bro Preston

   When I was just a youngster, we would go visit my Grand parents.  Grand pa was fairly old and had never farmed with anything but horses and mules.  His last old horse was into his retirement years.  He was big and gentle and wise to the capabilities of 7 or 8 year old boys.  We could climb all over that old horse and he hardly moved.  Most of our riding time was invested in getting him lined up with the old wooden porch so that all 5 or 6 of us go get on and take a ride. Eventually we succeeded and off we went down that old dirt road. Grand pa would scold us and say, “Now don’t you boys run that horse… he’s old and can’t take that kind of treatment. Just keep him to a walk!”  Off we’d go… lined up on the back of that old workhorse that none of us could even begin to wrap our legs around.  For a while that old horse would walk but soon he would want to go a little faster.  We would pull back on those old Hackamore reins but he figured out that it did not make any difference what we wanted. Eventually we were bouncing around on the back of that old horse as he picked up his pace and began to trot. One by one we would bounce off and when the last one of us came off that old horse would stop.  We would end up walking back home leading that horse with maybe one or two riding and rest leading him. We had some good times and it was fun even if we did get bounced off.

   That old horse reminds me of how summer is any more.   It seems lazy and retiring but don’t kid yourself.  Once you get on then it picks up its pace and things get fast.  If you are not careful you are going to get bounced off but if you manage to hang on you are in for quite a ride. August is a reminder that summer is still picking up the pace.  Grab hold of some mane and hold on, it will not be long before the ride is over and we’ll have got back to regular things. Enjoy the ride and take some one with you.  Seems like almost everywhere Jesus went he took some one with him.

Bro Preston

When I was a boy, the thought of summer time was a wonderful thing.  All the
kids would come together at a vacant lot and clean it up.  We would set up a
baseball field and often a make-shift backstop.  We would play ball for
hours on end.  If there wasn’t enough for teams we would hit fly balls to
one another.  We did not have much equipment… some had gloves and many of us
played bare-handed.  We would have only one or two bats between us and most
of the time just one baseball.   We would hit that poor ball until the cover
came off and the string came unraveled.  It was then time to search the
neighborhood for pop bottles.  We knew all the likely places.  It was
another summer time adventure and eventually we would put our nickels and
dimes together then go down to the “Five and Dime” to spend another dollar
on a ball.  If we weren’t playing ball we were riding bicycles.  At least
that is what we called it.  About half of us didn’t have  bikes and still
several others ended up pushing their bike because they went flat on those
west Texas goat-heads and thorns. I don’t every recall it being too hot …
none of us had Air Conditioning so we didn’t know any better.  We just
enjoyed the adventures we found in summer time play. It was a time to let
our souls breathe and expand.

I sort of feel sorry for kids today.  Many will never know the joy of making
their own summer adventures whether it is a sand lot clean-up, exploring a
creek on a lazy day or biking around all day long with your friends.  I
think we over schedule our kids today with too much.  We are so afraid that
they won’t be prepared for the future that we don’t allow them to enjoy the
innocence of their childhood. We are more afraid that they won’t measure up
to our expectations so we push…and cajole them until they’re just trying to
fulfill our dreams.  What a shame!!  I’m not saying the children should not
have responsibilities and even chores.  What I am saying is that it is
important for the mental health of your children to know how to play, to
create their own adventures and make friends.  I would not trade those days
of summer for all the wealth of the world. “What is the profit for a man (or
a child) to gain the whole world and loose his own soul.”   Have a great
summer.

Bro Preston