From Me to You: January 2025
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We’re at the start of a brand-new year, and when I look back from where we started to where we are today, all that can be said is, “Look what the Lord has done.”
I remember preaching my first sermon in the great metropolis of Manghum, Louisiana. Frances was with me, and a young lady by the name of Jeanette was also there. It was a Saturday, and in those small, Louisiana towns, in those years, Saturday was the big day. I mean, you would have hundreds of people that would come in from farms all over the area. I went into the store, which we had parked in front of, and I asked the man if we could plug into the receptacle on the wall. He said, “Well, what are you going to do?” I said, “We’re going to preach a sermon. I’ll pay you for whatever you think the electricity is worth.” He said, “Oh no, son, you go ahead. You can plug it in.” So I stood on the back of that two-ton truck, which made an excellent platform, and I preached everything I knew in five minutes. Then I preached it again. It was all I knew to do. A good crowd had gathered—forty, fifty people, maybe more. Afterward, I went inside to thank the man for his kindness, and he said to me, “Boy, I wish our preacher would preach like that!”
That’s where this ministry started. And where we are today, in 2025, well, I just thank the Lord for what He’s given us—two great preachers of the gospel, and I speak of Donnie and Gabriel. I don’t really have the vocabulary to properly explain it, except to say that Donnie and Gabriel both are preaching like I’ve never heard them preach in my life. I praise the Lord for them and, as well, for all of our ministers here. The messages delivered at Family Worship Center have been absolutely astounding.
I’m also thankful for our singers and our musicians, the best, I believe, in the world. You know I was reading the other day, and whenever David was preparing for the building of the temple, getting all the goods ready and, whatever the case, they had a choir that woke up Jerusalem every morning with thousands of people in that choir. They didn’t all sing at one time, but they specialized in music. This ministry also specializes in music, anointed by the Holy Spirit. And,gospel music that’s touched by the Lord, anointed by the power of God—that’s the most powerful witnessing factor in the world. There are scores of you reading this right now who can remember a time in your life when you didn’t know if you could make it or not, but then one of our songs came on, and the Spirit of God moved on your heart and revived you. Only God can do such a thing, and, thankfully, He does.
RESURRECTION CAMP MEETING
I’ve just given you two good reasons to come to our camp meeting—anointed preaching of God’s Word and gospel music. The dates for our 2025 Resurrection Camp Meeting are April 16-20, which will be here before you know it, so you want to make your plans now to be with us. Last year, we had scores of people arriving the Sunday before camp meeting even started, and how thrilled we were to have them.
BIBLES GOING OUT AROUND THE WORLD
When those two hurricanes hit, Helene and Milton, leveling some parts of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, we felt led of the Lord to send some help to the people devastated by those storms. Part of that help was financial, but the greater help, I believe, was the distribution of 5,000 New Testaments and 600 Read-n-Grow children’s Bibles to people who hadlost, in some cases, everything. Nothing soothes a storm-swept soul like the Word of almighty God.
When missionary-evangelist Kody Barbier was here with us, he said that he and his team havedistributed 150,000 Expositor’s Study Bibles and 40,000 New Testament Bibles in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Rwanda. Praise God! This young man said he has plans to distribute the French version of The Expositor’s Study Bible in the coming months, and he let me know thathe’s interested in having Bibles printed in Swahili, the language of East Africa. So we are looking into the particulars of doing that.
And then, with your help, we have just completed the complement of 100,000 donated New Testaments marked for shipment to Vietnam. These New Testaments have been translated into the Vietnamese language, which will no doubt be a tremendous blessing to the people there.
There is nothing like the Word of God, ladies and gentlemen. It is the only revealed truth in the world today. That’s why the distribution of these Bibles is so important and, I believe, the greatest missions work in the entirety of the world. For those of you taking part in our monthly Bible-thons, thank you so very much, and we pray the Lord’s richest blessings upon you.
FAMILY WORSHIP CENTER MEDIA CHURCH
What is this media church? It’s people from all over the world, I mean literally all over the world who believe in what we preach, they have a burden for lost souls, and they want to be a part of what we’re doing by the grace and the power of God. We now have media church members from over one hundred countries. Somebody said, “Well, what will it cost me?” It doesn’t cost anything; it’s free of charge. “What if I already belong to another church?” Well, that doesn’t matter, that’s between you and the other church, or whatever the case. But if you believe in what we teach and preach, and you want to be a part of it, and you believe in the message of the cross, then all you have to do is call our office and give them your name and address, and we’ll be glad to have you. There is only one requirement to be a Family Worship Center media church member—that you be born again, saved by the blood of the Lamb. So please consider what I’ve said and pray about it.
A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT
Just the other day on The Message of the Cross, we were talking about this process of spiritual growth, and Loren brought up a question we’re hearing a lot, which is, “Well, what if my faith is in Christ, but I don’t immediately see the results that I want to see?” In other words, Christians aren’t seeing the bad habits, the vices, etc., dropping off as quickly as they would like. Loren went on to relay something he heard at a ministers’ meeting on this very subject. One of the brothers in that meeting said, “Every season in the fall, when the leaves change on the trees, most of them fall off. But there always seems to be a few leaves up on that tree that are kind of stubborn, and nothing brings them down to the ground.” He went on to say, “You can do one of two things: you can either climb up to that tree and knock all the dead leaves off, or you can wait for spring.” So, if you find yourself in this process of spiritual growth, still learning the message of the cross, maybe asking that same question, “Why hasn’t everything dropped away?” Then just be patient because spring is coming. If you keep your faith in Christ, believe me, spring is coming.
