Thank God...

...for another wonderful Sunday! We had twenty this morning and twenty-one tonight. The services both had a great presence of God.
Tonight we had two young girls to get saved, one about 10 and the other about twelve. It was kind of interesting how it all got started. Brother Terry, one of our local ministers, had been preaching for juts a little bit when a sister who has been very sick this week had to leave the sanctuary because of a pretty major coughing spell and some sharp pains she had in her side. A few minutes later, her daughter came back into the room and whispered to me that we needed to pray for her mother right then. I motioned to Brother Terry and told him what was going on, so he didn't miss a beat, but got the oil bottle and we brought her up for prayer. We prayed for a little bit, then started again, and then she began to feel the power of the Holy Ghost, Her countenance changed and she began worshipping the Lord! Soon two of her daughters were embracing her, all three weeping and praising God. It was wonderful...As we all prayed and felt the Lord's presence, a group of young girls had gathered around the piano, and were helping the piano player sing some songs. I noticed two of them starting to cry. I knew immediately that it was conviction. Brother Terry and some others sprung into action while others of us kept on singing and praising God. They bothe were saved and a third, who was already saved, sanctified, and Holy Ghost filled got such a wonderful blessing that she shouted all around the church house under the power of God. Tonight was such a blessing. God has really been moving in our services. I believe that He is preparing us for a great Revival move very soon! The Revival Spirit has already begun to settle amongst us, and seems to get stronger every time we meet.
I am so thankful!
God bless you all...
Brother Donnie
By the way, please pray for my wife, she has been having more serious trouble with her migraines lately, and one seems to be starting up tonight. She needs a healing...

Local Church Update

The church where we are now pastoring is in Winchester, KY. We have been having some wonderful times in the Lord, as I have mentioned in other posts. Just to give you a little update...
We are averaging about 15 in Sunday School, I think. This past Sunday we had 16, which is only 7 away from our record SS attendance. Sunday nights are running 12 to 14 people generally. Tonight was VLB night and we had 13 in attendance. There has been such a peaceful, unified feeling amongst us lately. Hanging around, talking after service...tonight we gathered around the piano and worked on some new songs for the Gleaners. Old ones, actually, that we haven't used in a while. It was a lot of fun. We have a bake sale planned for the first weekend in November, and I am currently praying hard and trying to work out the details for s Revival, the first since our move to Winchester.We are very excited. We're also in the early talking/planning stages of some visitation efforts in our new town, as well as some other outreach efforts we want to get involved in.
We really are blessed, and we have a good little church. We meet in a small, but very functional storefront that we rent. It is right down town in a pretty well populated and visible area, just a block from the courthouse. Our goal is to gather enough souls together to fill it up. We want so much to win people to Christ! That has become sort of a rallying cry for us. There are numbers of people who pass by our church every time we are in service, and we are praying and believing that it is only a matter of time until the Spirit begins to draw them to The Church of God . Praise the Lord! There is a bar across the street, as well as several other businesses. I plan to try and find a way to meet the owners of all these business, plus the inhabitants of the apartments that are above them.
Please pray for all of us. We want to do a good work for our God, as He has done so much for us.
God bless you all...
Brother Donnie

Making my list, checking it twice...

Yes, friends, I have already begun plotting out my decorating scheme for my Christmas lights, etc. I'm very excited this year, even more so than usual for some odd reason. I didn't get to do any outside decorations for some reason last year. This year I want go all out. I've been scouting the yard for small tress and bushes that could be useful. I have som huge Pine trees, but they are just too big. Some of the larger bushes will be perfect. I also have two trellises(sp?) that will be beautiful all lit up. Also I'm planning to build a nativity scene. I've been doing it for three or four years now. Actually I did dio that last yearf, I forgot. I have found that I can easily build it out of for skids, you know, wooden palletts. One for the floor, one for the back wall, two for the side walls. Then I build the roof out of planks pulled from a fifth skid. Then add some straw, and a small flood light. I'll have to buy my own plastic figure this year, as I no longer pastor a church that owns one. Man, I can't wait!
Yes, Sister Smith. I know I am a weirdo, much like the poor other fellow you mention. (I just couldn't bring myself to mention Brother Horne's name in the same sentence as "weirdo"...oh, wait a minute...woops!)
It's a sickness, I'm sure. Maybe I'll get my wife to put a good Christmas sonG on here...o, yeah!
Later...
Brother Donnie

Great Day in the Lord....

Today was a day of wonderful blessings. We had two wonderful services. This morning, I preached the message I had been planning all week. It was on the Covenant of The Church of God. It is actually part of a series. I'm excited to get into the subject. I'm actually taking phrases from the actual word covenant as titles for the messages. It is all dealing with the scriptural back-up for the covenant, and with our responsibilty after having entered into this covenant relationship.
Tonight, Brother Terry was scheduled to preach...I thought. Obviously we always need to hear good preaching, but tonight was one of those nights when God just simply seemed to have something else in mind! He began to bless and there was a couple of hours of singing and shouting His praises as the Holy Ghost swept over nearly everyone in attendance. We thought it was over a couple of different times, but then it would start up all over again! God kept on pouring His Spirit out on all of us, it was wonderful!
In other news...
I FINALLY got my truck road ready again. This afternoon, I put a new brake hose on the right side and re-bled the lines. The thing stops almost perfectly now. The pedal is a little loose, so I'm gonna take the other wheel off and bleed tha lines on that side. It now has new calipers, pads, and one new hose.
I've also stared plotting out my Christmas lighting and decorating plans. I've been wanting to play my Christmas cd's for weeks. Today I looked into one of my goody boxes of lights, etc. oh, yeah. I'm ready.
Gotta go...
God bless...
Brother Donnie

Saturday night...

And I am so tired. But feeling better than most of the week. I have been really sick with some kind of cold, or sinus infection...I don't know. I'm still coughing a lot, but feel better over all. I hope my cough will allow me to preach tomorrow morning. Last Sunday morning I was hindered by several coughing fits the first ten minutes, but all of a sudden the Holy Ghost came to my rescue, and I felt an instant surge of the power of God! I went on to preach a solid thirty minutes unhindered by my sick body. I expect if the cough persists, God is able to do the same thing again. Looking back, some of the greatest blessings I've ever received while preaching were in times when I was fighting some physical hindrance or sickness. At times the sickness or pain would even return after preaching, oddly, but the Lord let me have a break from it long enough to do my work. Man, I love the Lord! He is so good.
Tomorrow I plan to preach on the Covenant of The Church of God. Wednesday night I taught a Bible study about covenants. It dealt with two specific questions. 1. What is a Covenant? 2. What does it mean to be under a Covenant with God. There were several scripture references, but the main lesson came from Exodus 19, and some related verses. I used some material that I wrote while pastoring at E'town, KY a few years ago. So tomorrow's message is a follow up which will deal specifically with the covenant that we take to become members of TCOG. I'm excited about it. This will probably become a short series of messages since as I get deeper into it, I keep coming accross more aspects that I want to touch on. I teach Bible study the second Wed of the month, so I'll use that to help cover as much ground as possible.
Tommorow night I get to hear some preaching as Brother Terry Flora, our assistant pastor, will be getting in the pulpit. He is a great guy who is a blessing to us every time he preaches the word.
In other news...
my wife and I just went in half-ers today with her aunt and uncle to buy a pop-up camper. We are so excited. We got it for $850.00. Thats 425 per family...AWESOME!! It's an older one, but I can't wait to pick it up this week and we are going to get both families together to take it out for the inaugural camping trip. Oh, yes, the big fella is going camping with his girls...YEEHAW!! I love doing things like this with my wife and babies. Just awesome! Plus I get to take my guitar, my other consatant companion. I can't wait...
God bless you all...
Brother Donnie

the Lost Blogger Returns...

Never fear, it is I! The Lost Blogger! I have returned from my short hiatus. Boy the strain of keeping up a blog about absolutley nothing is unbelievable. In fact the last few days it seems like absolutely nothing is exactly what I've been up to. So much so that to actually take a few moments to blog about it has seemed just too much.
But anyways...
I do want to say that I enjoyed the General Assembly so much. It has been years since I have left the GA feeling so excited. The year the flag controversy was settled, I was mostly relieved. But this time, I have come home really excited about what might be ahead for us. I have heard some grumbling here and there but that doesn't discourage me at all. I believe that God is going to help us. Last year was rough. But it is over. Sure we still have a few things to deal with, and with God's help that will all be taken care of in due time. But I am looking forward to the upcoming year. Though it may hold some difficult days, some trials, even some persecutions, it will no doubt hold victory, IF we hold on to God! "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help..." Praise God! Friends, I know where my help comes from. Do you? If you are a child of God you do. Look unto Him. What a blessed priviledge it is to carry every thing to God in prayer. He is faithful!
I'm ready to go on now and do the work that has been given to The Church of God. I believe God has given us a leader, and now that that is settled, I am praying for Brother Smith as he does his work. I trust he will be praying for us all as we do ours. Indeed, it is all a part of the same work, after all.
"For we are labourers together with God" I Corinthians 3:9 a.

God bles each of you...
Brother Donnie