Author, Writer and Preacher Shane Kastler is one of the speakers at the conference “Christ from Beginning to End” March 8-10, at Kinsey Drive Baptist Church, Dalton, GA.  Shane will be speaking on “From Law to Grace” Friday night at 6:00pm, Saturday at 11:00am and again Sunday at 10am.

Shane Kastler serves as Pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He is a graduate of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (M. Div.), Northeastern State University (B.B.A.), and NE Oklahoma A&M College (A.S. in Electromechanics). From 2011-2016 he was the Co-Host of “Church & State” a weekly 2-hour program on KELB and KEBL radio in SW Louisiana. He has also taught school (Logic, Apologetics, Bible, Science) and since 2004 has written a weekly newspaper column called “Seeking Higher Ground.” He is a contributing columnist to news journals Target Liberty and The Economic Policy Journal, and writes reviews for the San Francisco Review of Books. A frequent writer of articles on Theology, Economics, Philosophy, and Cultural Issues, he has contributed opinion pieces to USA Today, The Tennessean, The Baton Rouge Advocate, The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity, the Mises Institute for Economics, World Net Daily, and LewRockwell.com; among other media outlets. He is the author of “Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Redemption” (Pelican Publishing, 2010) a biography of the renown Confederate general, which tells the true story of how he found redemption in Christ. In 2017, the Tennessee House of Representatives honored him with House Resolution 97, recognizing his contributions to Tennessee history.  He and his wife Erin and are both native Oklahomans, and have 3 children.

No Service Tonight 2/12/17

We will resume Sunday Night service next week 2/19/2017.

We are suspending our Wednesday night study because of the funeral for Sarah Barnard.  The church is providing for the family a meal and we probably won’t be finished until church time.  Most everyone is either going to the funeral of preparing the dinner.  We will resume next Wednesday.  Please pray for me and the service tomorrow.  Pastor Ron.

Written by Michael Lyman:

Today in Church History. Discouragement is the occupational hazard of ministry, and many of God’s workers are disheartened by small crowds and meager results. Charles Spurgeon could teach them a lesson. It isn’t that Spurgeon ever struggled with small crowds. Almost from the beginning, multitudes flocked to his feet. When he assumed his London pastorate in 1854, the church had 232 members. Soon so many were crowding his auditoriums that he sometimes asked his members to stay away the next Sunday to accommodate newcomers. He seldom preached to fewer than 6,000, and on one occasion his audience numbered almost 24,000—all this before the day of microphones. During his lifetime Spurgeon preached to approximately 10,000,000 people.

He also became history’s most widely-read preacher. Today there is more material written by Spurgeon than by any other Christian author of any generation. The collection of his Sunday sermons stands as the largest set of books by a single author in the history of the church. He is called the “Prince of Preachers.” But ironically Spurgeon himself is a testimony to the power of a small church.

On Sunday, January 6, 1850, a blizzard hit England, and 15-year-old Charles was unable to reach the church he usually attended. He turned down Artillery Street and ducked into a Primitive Methodist Church, finding only a few people standing around the stove. Not even the preacher arrived.

A thin-looking man stood and read Isaiah 45:22—Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. The speaker, groping for something to say, kept repeating his text. Finally, he spied young Charles in the back. Pointing his bony finger at the boy, he cried, “Look, young man! Look! Look to Christ!”

The young man did look, and Spurgeon later said, “As the snow fell on my road home from the little house of prayer, I thought every snowflake talked with me and told of the pardon I had found.” Arriving home, his mother saw his expression and exclaimed, “Something wonderful has happened to you.” It had, proving that smaller ponds often yield the biggest fish.