WestHillsPres' Weblog

No Eye Has Seen…

revg8r — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:34:38 +0000

Isaiah 64:4

Since ancient times no one has heard,
       no ear has perceived,
       no eye has seen any God besides you,
       who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with Neil Board (or Corn as his friends call him), he’s made an amazing journey. (For the full scoop you can visit his page: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/corneliusboard).

Just 100 days ago Corn fell 90 feet from a ledge just off of the Cherokee Trail and was brought into UT Medical Center with virtually no hope of survival (for you medical types, he had a blood pH of 6.8–in other words, he was just as good as dead). Pam got a call from Corn’s dad that Sunday morning. :Mike could barely breathe, so she prayed, and God gave the Boards the strength that they needed for that moment.

And God hasn’t stopped yet.

Early on, the doctors wouldn’t even give the Boards the hope that Neil would last for one hour, so I prayed for one hour more, one day more, one week more. Praying like that made me look like a man of faith. But then a funny thing started to happen. Corn stabilized and here at West Hills Church we started to pray for him to go home. The doctors said it was possible, but not before Christmas, the doctors said. So I prayed for Neil to go home by Thanksgiving. After all, that was a big prayer. Then those caring for Neil moved the prayer to late October, so I move my prayer to early October. After taking a one-week vacation, my famly returned to find that Corn would be released this Thursday.

As Jesus said to Peter after the apostle’s short lived stroll on Lake Galilee, “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?” God has shown me so much in the wake of what was a tragedy for the Board family. When we have been weak (even our prayers) God has been so immensely strong. God has shown me time and time again that it doesn’t matter how big I think my prayers are, because God is so much bigger.

Grace and Peace to you,

Bill

Neil Board

revg8r — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:00:48 +0000

As some of you may or may not know, Neil Board was in an accident early Saturday morning. He and his family are in desperate need of your prayers. Rather than inundating the members of the family with voice mails, you can simply learn more about what’s going on with Neil at the following link http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/corneliusboard.

Remember that the prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective.

Family Worship, Cont’d.

revg8r — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:25:03 +0000

As I mentioned in my previous post, the Fikes family has committed itself to the practice of having Family Worship every evening. The Bible commands us to do this as individuals and families, but I didn’t want to leave you hanging there. Here’s our “Order of Worship” for our devotions. It’s not perfect and there are other ways of doing it, but this is what works for us, and we have experienced great joy in the process. First, we sing one or two songs. Most of what we sing are of the simple praise and worship variety (“I Love You Lord,”, “Jesus is the Rock,” “Step by Step,” and “Thy Word”) but we’ve also been working on “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” over the last month. For those of you who have older children, you’ll be able to do much more, and I can see us incorporating guitar and other instruments to Family Worship time. Second, we read a Bible story from the children’s Bible. In the two years that we’ve been doing this we’ve been through the Bible several times. In fact, we are on our second Bible, because the binding on the first gave up the ghost. Third, we pray. We pray for the churches in Cuba, China and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi (Lagniappe PCA). We pray for a child in one of the Homes of Love in Vietnam, named Suen. We pray for revival in Knoxville. We pray for Eli’s salvation. We pray for good rest, good dreams and safety through the night. We pray for those for whom we’ve promised to lift up in prayer.

Our children aren’t always perfect when this is going on, but I sense that they are gaining more insight into what it means to be part of the Family of God. I know that other families also add portions of catechism instruction or Scripture memory, and that’s wonderful. I’m simply telling you about what works for us.

Grace and Peace,

Bill

You Shall Teach Them Diligently

revg8r — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 21:21:04 +0000

Today was the first day of classes here in Knox County, so I wanted to talk to you for a moment about voshuns. The call for voshuns can be heard loud and clear in the Fikes family at about 9:15 every night. After Eli has been bathed, brushed and “pajamed” he runs down the stairs and announces to the rest of the family “time for ‘voshuns!” By now you know that voshuns are devotions, or “family worship.”

Now I’m bringing voshuns up for two reasons.

The first reason is this little thing called reality. The reality that most of us face is that the school year cycle is starting again (or for the first time). Whether your children are involved in preschool or highschool, this is the time of year when we start establishing patterns in our homes and reestablish those that we’ve let fall by the wayside. You have the perfect opportunity to start the practice of family devotions again (or for the first time).

The second reason for bringing this up is because it’s really important to God. God has called us to be parents to our children, not butlers, not a courier service, not an organic entertainment device. This is the job description for a parent that God has given us in the Bible (it’s in Deuteronomy 6).

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

This is our responsibility, not the responsibility of the schools (even Christian ones). It’s not the job of any of the staff of our church. It is our job.

Of course this also means that we need to seek out those moments where we are able to interpret life from God’s point of view. But at a bear minimum we need to pray with and for our children and read the Bible with them.

Grace and Peace to you,

Bill

In the beginning…

revg8r — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:24:02 +0000

…was the WestHillsPres website. The website had directions and purpose statements and schedules and other useful info, but it was missing something.

So we did what any church would do. We let things sit until we could come up with a better idea. And God in His kindness brought that better idea across our path. It was an Adult Education Seminar blog (http://eternalwealth.wordpress.com/about/). And it was good!

And the assistant pastor (Bill) said “Well why don’t we open things up a little bit more and make the website more interactive?” And the jury was still out on how that idea turned out, but at least it’s something different. I don’t know the rules for this whole blogging thing, so we’ll do this like we do worship. When I mess up, I’ll admit it and I’ll claim another “grace moment” (those are times when I beg for you to forgive me for not being “smooth” enough) and hopefully we’ll see love covering a multitude of sins.

Grace and Peace,

Bill