The Baptist Visitor, May 23, 2017

1. FIRST SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCH of NORTH HOLLYWOOD (1-818-761-4800) NON-PROFIT ORG.
“The First Family” (www.fsbcnh.org) U.S. POSTAGE PAID
10853 Victory Boulevard PERMIT #660
North Hollywood, CA 91606-3826 VAN NUYS, CA
Address Service Requested
THE BAPTIST VISITOR
Paul D. Whetstone (Interim Senior Pastor) MAY 23, 2017 Charles Cutney (Minister of Encouragement)
Please come and help us to celebrate
“Memorial Sunday”
**That’s Sunday, May 14, at 8:30 & 11:00AM and 6:30PM**
Note:
We will be honoring all of
the men and women
who have served
or who are now serving
in our beloved U.S. Military!
We had a wonderful Baptismal Service
This past Lord’s Day Evening!
At the stroke of 6:30PM last Sunday evening,
May 21, Pastor Charles and Deacon Curtis
welcomed Elyse Richardson into our Baptistry.
She expressed her faith in Jesus Christ as her
Savior and Lord, and then she was baptized in
the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit, and became an “official” Member of the
First Family.
Mary LaCosse (who is already a Member)
was baptized next. Her reason for this was that,
by doing so, she was rededicating her life to
Christ, and reaffirming her commitment to Him
as her Lord and Savior.
Be sure to pray for both Elyse and Mary in
the days ahead. They have each made serious
decisions for the Lord, and His Word commands
us to “…encourage each other and build each
other up…” (I Thessalonians 5:11[a] NLT)
Business Meeting May 31st!
OUR RECORD SPEAKS: May 14, May 21, 2017
8:30AM Worship Attendance 20 / 23
9:45AM Bible Study / Sunday School Attendance NR / NR
11:00AM Worship Attendance 13 / 24
6:30PM Worship Attendance 15 / 28
Offering **$1,260.70 / $1,039.28
(** 2016 Budget Offering Goal**$2,603.46)
Benevolence $00.00 / $25.00
Children's Ministry $40.00 / $00.00
First Family Friends Who Will Celebrate a Birthday or a
Wedding Anniversary During May and June
MAY
26 – Ruth Ann Nixon
27—Candy Avery
27 – Robin Collins
28 – Scott & Tara Oliver
JUNE
01 –Jasmine Dixon
01 – Kendra Barry
03 – Susy Dixon
03 – Bob Miller
04 – Joshua Dixon
05 – Marie Aguirre
05 – Nick & Debbie Kobe
06 – Joseph Mann
14 – Jose Maldonado
16 – Mary Nappi
18 – Charles & Sandra Cutney
18 – Nick Kobe
18 – Edward & Perla Preciado
18 – Brian Schoenfeld
20 – Pinky Briley
20 – Molly Mann
21 – David Cutney

2. “Introduction to
‘Revival’!”
Article #1 of “What is ‘Revival,’
and how does it happen?”
The term “Revival” is often misunderstood
by God’s people. For example, for many older saints, it
might conjure up memories of long ago “revival
meetings”—held for a week or so, in a church or other
public gathering-place, complete with an itinerant
“evangelist” brought in to preach fire-and-brimstone
sermons that would hopefully motivate people to accept
Jesus. For other believers, “revival” is a time when—again,
usually with an outside preacher—a church is helped to
ratchet up its “spiritual temperature” for a week or so—
only to “suffer a relapse” when the initial thrill of the
conference/seminar/celebration, etc. has faded a bit.
Neither of these definitions is what we are
referring to when we ask the probing question, “What is
‘Revival,’ and how does it happen?”
What God has laid on the hearts of a number of us
in the First Family is something deeper and longer-lasting
than either of the two examples mentioned above. What we
are praying for is sometimes referred to as a “spiritual
awakening.” In other words, it’s when a church begins to
function the way God intended it to function in the first
place: as a Spirit-filled, loving, caring, sacrificing,
witnessing, disciplined group of believers who literally
want to “change the world”—beginning with where they
are!
In other words, He wants us to become the kind of
body of believers that Christ envisioned as He spoke to His
disciples in Acts 1:8 (AMP), just before He ascended to
Heaven: “...you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and
might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you
shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and
Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.”
“Hold on there now, Pastor Chuck—hey, that was
then, this is now; things are a whole lot different
nowadays! That kind of stuff doesn’t happen anymore!”
I agree that it’s a rarity, but there are many bodies
of believers all over the world (some of them under heavy
persecution, by the way) that are experiencing “Revival,”
or “spiritual renewal,” or whatever you choose to call it.
“Yeah, but aren’t those churches kinda freaky? It’s
like they’re fanatic, or something!”
Granted, there are some of God’s people who have
gone to excesses in the ways they are trying to “change
their world.” But those who are controlled by both the
Spirit and the Word are doing some great things!
One of my favorite preacher/teachers, Dr. David
Hocking, used to say that, “The Church has been
‘subnormal’ for so long that when we finally become
‘normal,’ people think we’re ‘abnormal’!”
“See! That’s what I MEAN! I don’t want anyone to
look at me and think I’m pretending to be ‘holier than
thou’—know what I mean?”
Let me put it this way: When revival comes to
us—either as individuals, or as a group—for the most part,
our loving, caring, serving attitude tends to draw people to
us. For example, listen to this description of early days of
the Church at Jerusalem in Acts 2:46-47 (NASB): “...day
by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and
breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their
meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,
praising God, and having favor with all the people . And
the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who
were being saved.”
“But didn’t they have a lot of persecution later
on?”
Of course! Satan always stirs up opposition to
God’s people—especially when they really get serious
about following Christ’s commands to operate in and
through the Holy Spirit. But that ongoing satanic
opposition in no way justifies our retreating from our
mission for Jesus!
“I’ll have to think about that some more.”
One thing that many of us in the First Family have
noticed is the sharp increase of attacks by Satan against
specific members of our church—and that this increase
began very close to the time that we began to pray for
Revival! We have had everything from leukemia to brain
tumors crop up in our fellowship. Others have lost very
good jobs that they had worked in for years. Still others
have faced severe financial hardships.
If we were a very large church, we might simply
write these painful experiences off as being very
unfortunate, but actually “statistically normal” for a huge
number of people. But our church only averages about 30-
40 in our Sunday morning worship services, so the spike in
calamities is not only dramatic, but very unusual.
So what should we do—yield to Satan, and back
off in our daily prayers for Revival, in the hope that he will
ease up a bit on his attacks?
Probably not the best idea. Because it assumes that
Satan always “fights fair,” and that if we don’t come
against him, he’ll “make nice” and give us some relief. But
listen to Christ’s tough words to the Pharisees in John 8:44
(NASB): “You are of your father the devil, and you want to
do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the
beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is
no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from
his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies."
And then there’s that classic passage, Ephesians
6:10-12 (NASB), which should settle it once and for all:
“...be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.
Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand
firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is
not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against
the powers, against the world forces of this darkness,
against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly
places.” So fasten your seat belts—we’re in this for the
long haul! Our next article will answer the question, “How
do we know when we need Revival?”
May 23, 2017