Gravel Ridge General Baptist Church

Jane and i were married on Aug 2nd, 55 years ago in a small church in south Louisiana. From the first minute i saw her, i somehow knew that i wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. Jane was, and still is the most beautiful women i ever met. We had only known each other for two weeks when we decided to be married, and we had lots of folks that told us that it would never last. Well, that was over a half century ago, so it appears that we proved them wrong.

Yes, Miss Jane is the Quiet little lady that you see in the back row every Sunday morning, along with her kids and grandkids. Our life together has had it’s good times and stormy days, but not once has she ever backed away from her responsibilities as a mother and partner during our life together. There was a time that i lost my way from the Lord, and spent a number of years trying to find my way back, but Jane’s faith never faltered, she raised our kids in church, even though i wasn’t there to support her. Many Sundays she was alone at church, but she never lost hope, and now she has filled the back row with her family. Praise God, Jane never gave up on me, and i can announce to the world that i Love her more today than she will ever know.

                 If God calls me home today, you can bet that i will reserve the Quiet little lady in the back row a place by me so that we can spend eternity together.

  Bro. Bob

Food For Thought !

An old south Arkansas farmer decided one Sunday morning to go to a small country church for church service. When it came time for the service to start, he realized that he and the preacher were the only two people to show up. What do we do now, the preacher asked, since we are the only two who showed up, guess we’ll just have to cancel the service. The old farmer thought for a minute, then with the wisdom that only an old timer could muster up, he said, Well when i go out to feed my cows and only one cow shows up, i go ahead and feed her anyway.

With this kind of answer, the preacher was touched and inspired, so he invited the old farmer to to sit down and he proceeded with a hell and brimstone sermon that would have shaken even a Pentecostal deacon. When the service was over, the preacher said, well old timer what did you think of my sermon? Putting his old straw hat on and turning to get  in his beat up old truck, the farmer said. Now Brother Robert, when i go out to feed, and only one cow shows up to get fed, i go ahead and feed her, but i don’t feed her the whole truck load !

As Christians we understand that we walk by Faith and not by sight. The more we humble ourselves and depend on God to take control of our lives, the stronger our faith becomes. We pray to God to provide us with our needs and our faith that God will provide those needs is what keeps us strong in our faith.Some folks in the Christian community become so comfortable in their faith that they tend to believe that God will grant them their every prayer.

Now, i am not a bible scholar, but i can’t remember any where in Gods word that we’re taught that God answers our every want and desire. God is also our protector from dangerous situations, but one must be aware of the thin line between Faith and Foolishness. There have been many instances when some one is involved in an accident through no fault of their own, and have cried out God Save Me, and because of their strong faith, God has spared them from harm. Now if a Christian sets out to attempt a  feat like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute, i think that everyone would agree that this is sheer foolishness, and crossing that thin line likely wouldn’t get a favorable response from the Lord

God created us in his own image, as free moral agents and didn’t hang strings on us to be his puppets, but rather gave each of us the freedom to live our lives any way we choose. We have the option to live a life that is acceptable to God, or we can choose to follow our own sinful nature and condemm ourselves to an eternity without Gods love. The choice is ours to make.

                                                                                                             Bro. Bob

In many churches there seems to be a sense that the back row is reserved for those with little faith, while the Amen corner is reserved for those with the most faith.We as a Christian family have a tendency to catagorize our brothers and sisters according to their social status or amount of time spent doing Gods work. Is this not a form of judging what’s in their hearts?
It is my humble opinion that even the most devout Christians, even those with great faith, still refuse to completely cut their ties with a lost world. Bet that sentence caught your attention! The old timers used to call that, trying to have your cake and eat it too. If  i have offfended anyone at this point then i’m delighted, because that means that you don’t agree, and just maybe it will cause someone to examine their life and their salvation to see if they are truly worthy of the title of Child of God. Now, lest i be accused of being a hypocrit, let me clerify my stand on the issue. Yes, by the Grace of God i am a born again Christian, yet i am also a sinner, still living in a world of sin, still subject to the devils temptations, and will never be worthy of the title of Child of God. If any of my church brotheren have a slight touch of self-Ritchousness and are offended then, praise God i’ve done my job.
Bro. Bob

For those of you who may not know me, let me introduce myself and my family to you. I’m the old white haired fellow that can be found, with my wife Jane, my daughter Sandra, my grandson Justin, my granddaughter Heather and my great grandson Lane, in the last row at church every Sunday. No, the other old dude with the white hair is Heiko. One of our greatest Blessings in life has been that God placed us in our church family here at GRGBC and we intend to try and be a blessing to all our family members.
From time to time i will post an article on the blog about things that God has laid on my heart to share with our family. Now, i will never win a a pulitzer prize for my writing, and some of my thoughts my be a little controversial. so i will welcome any and all responses. Ronnie has done an outstanding job at providing us with a first class web site, which i think was an inspiration from God, so we should all use it for the Glory of God. Just remember you can have all the Faith in the world, but it isn’t worth anything if you don’t use it.
Bro. Bob