Drexel Heights Baptist Church located at 2802 West Mossman Road  85713

Church office: (5 2 0) 8 8 3- 7 7 1 0.

Distributed on the first Sunday of each month.

Submissions must be presented to Mary Garner by the close of business on the 19^th of the month preceding.

February, in the year of our Lord 2008

From the Pastor’s Pen

Monday night men's studies are important to me.  The guys know in what direction I'm I headed - Godly leadership.  My hope is to develop men who love God, and others.  As we dive into the scriptures each week I'm blessed to know I'm not alone in my quest to know God more.  The men that show up come with expectation knowing that God's Word is supreme.  It has to be, because that is all we have.  It's our instruction manual.  I'm continually challenging the men at DHBC to love God's Word, live Gods' Word and bring others to the savior.    That’s' how we build one another up and how we grow the Kingdom.  The bible students on Monday nights hold me accountable to live for God.  Who does the same for you?

Touching Lives and Building Relationship on Mondays, Dan Gutierrez, pastor-teacher   

Kingdom Mind Set For a New Year

Below is a suggested goal setting plan.  Your goals may look different, at least make an attempt to do something this year. 

I.      Personal-

           a.        Read 10 books.

             b.       Begin a exercise/walking program.

             c.        Increase or change your Bible Study /Reading Plan.

             d.        Attend two seminars.

II.        Family-

             a.        Take a different kind of vacation.

                b.        This is the year I'm going to witness to uncle Bob.

                c.          Write a few thank you cards/notes.

                d.         Watch less television.

III.        Ministry - Body of Christ/Church-

                a.        Increase my financial giving.

                b.        Join a small group.

                c.        Start or assist in one ministry at church and/or outside the church.

                d.        Be a Paul, Timothy or Barnabas type to someone.

Bible Trivia

How old was Saul when he became king?

Answer on page six.

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Calendar of Events...

Thank you, everyone, for all the delicious soups and everything else; it takes a lot to make a good meal.

February is here and that means love is in the air and we are already preparing for our 50^th Church Anniversary in March. We have reserved February 20th for our annual Valentine Banquet. The church is going to provide Baked Potatoes. We ask you to bring your favorite toppings to go on them. People often like chili, cheese, chives, onions, or even peanut butter, whatever! Also bring some veggies or a birthday cake, etc. I appreciate your comments and suggestions.

Doris Barry, Kitchen Committee

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Visit our DHBC website: www.dhbctucson.org

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Gospel Hymn Stories

By Jim Garner

I Love to Tell the Story

The evangelical emphasis or movement really began in England during the mid-eighteenth century with the ministries of such leaders as George Whitefield and John and Charles Wesley. The movement in its earliest days reached mainly the lower and middle classes of society with the upper classes remaining quite aloof from its influence. During the nineteenth century, however, the evangelical movement began to have considerable influence upon the upper classes as well. One such influential group was known as the Clapham Sect because the activities of this group centered in the elite suburb of Clapham in Southwest London. These men were wealthy evangelical philanthropists, students of the Bible, and men of prayer. They gave freely of their time, talents, and money to spread the gospel. Though these individuals generally maintained their membership within the Anglican Church, their emphasis was always on the necessity of personal conversion and guidance by the Holy Spirit rather than on a mere reliance upon the sacraments and rituals of the Church. There are numerous examples of the zealous ministries carried on by these influential Christian laymen, including a number of members of Parliament, who exercised great compassion upon the masses of impoverished people throughout the United Kingdom. A noted historian says of this Clapham Sect, "Never in the history of Anglicanism had any group exercised so profound an influence."

Katherine Hankey was born in 1834, the daughter of a wealthy English banker. Though the members of her family were prominent members of the Anglican Church, they were always associated with its more evangelical faction. Her father was one of the influential members of the Clapham Sect. Early in life Katherine, or Kate, as she was affectionately known, caught this same evangelical concern from her father. She began organizing Sunday School classes for rich and poor throughout London. These classes had a profound influence throughout the city with a large number of the young students in turn becoming zealous Christian workers. Kate also did considerable writing, including such works as Bible Class Teachings, a booklet on confirmation, as well as a number of books of verse. All of the royalties received from these publications were always directed to some foreign missions project.

When Katherine was only thirty years of age, she experienced a serious illness. During a long period of recovery she wrote a lengthy poem on the life of Christ. The poem consisted of two main sections, each containing fifty verses. The first section of the poem was entitled "The Story Wanted." It was from this part of her poem that she later adapted the words for another of her familiar hymn texts, "Tell Me the Old, Old Story." This hymn has since become another of the church's classic children's hymns.

Later that same year while still recovering from her illness, Kate Hankey completed the second part of her poem on the life of Christ. This sequel to the first section was entitled "The Story Told." From these verses came the text for "I Love to Tell the Story," written in the same meter but with a different accent than her other familiar hymn text.

Being musically inclined, Kate also composed her own tunes for these two texts. Her hymns received little notice, however, when used with this music. The following year, 1867, a large international YMCA convention was held in Montreal, Canada. One of the speakers at the convention, Major General Russell from England, closed his emotionally charged message to the delegates by quoting the verses from Miss Hankey's two hymn texts. In the audience that day was a noted American gospel musician, William H. Doane, composer of more than 2,000 gospel songs. Mr. Doane was greatly moved by these lines and promptly composed musical settings for both texts.

Later a new musical setting, which replaced Doane's music for "I Love to Tell the Story," was composed by William G. Fischer, a Philadelphia musician and piano dealer. Fischer also added the refrain for the hymn, "I love to tell the story!’ Twill be my theme in glory-to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love." In 1875 the hymn appeared in its present form in Bliss and Sankey's collection, Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs, which brought "I Love to Tell the Story" to the attention of evangelical congregations everywhere. Both of Katherine Hankey's hymns are still widely used today.

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Rick Warren (Remember he wrote the "PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE")

You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having "wealth" from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren,

"Purpose Driven Life” author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California .In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said: People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense. Life is a series of problems: either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.

God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.   I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.

  No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.

If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

  You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.   Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72. First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?   Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.

That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

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If God is your Co-pilot - swap seats!
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Prayer: Don't give God instructions -- just report for duty!

Focus on the Church Family

Testimony by Liz Vogeli

The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.

The Will of God never takes you to where the Grace of God will not protect you.

We don't change the message, the message changes us.

You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage him.

Bible Trivia answer:

30 (1 Samuel 13:1)

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Paul Harvey's "If I were the devil"...

The following is a 1993 article by the famous radio personality, Paul Harvey:

If I were the prince of darkness I'd want to engulf the whole world in darkness, and I'd have a third of its real estate and four fifths of its population. But I wouldn't be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree: thee.

So I'd set about however necessary, to take over the United States. I'd subvert the churches first. I'd begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve, "Do as you please." To the young I would whisper that the Bible is a myth. I would convince them that man created God, instead of the other way around. I would confide that what's bad is good, and what's good is square. And the old I would teach to pray after me, "our father which art in Washington..."

And then I'd get organized: I'd educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I'd threaten TV with dirtier movies, and visa versa. I'd peddle narcotics to whom I could. I'd sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I'd tranquilize the rest with pills.

If I were the devil I'd soon have families at war with themselves; churches at war with themselves; and nations at war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings, I'd have mesmerizing media fanning the flames.

If I were the devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellect, but neglect to discipline emotions; just let those run wild, until before you knew it you'd have to have drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.

Within a decade I'd have prisons overflowing; I'd have judges promoting pornography. Soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls-and church money.

If I were the devil I'd make the symbol of Easter an egg, and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.

If I were the devil I'd take from those who have, and give to those who want it, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And what'll you bet I couldn't get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich.

I would caution against extremes, and hard work, and patriotism, and moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old fashioned-that swinging is more fun. That what you see on TV is the way to be. And thus I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure.

In other words, if I were the devil I would just keep on doing what he is doing.

Paul Harvey, March 16, 1993