Friday Church News Notes
May 24, 2024 - Volume 25, Issue 21
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, though this does not imply an endorsement.
NOT FORSAKEN: THE STORY OF HOPE (Friday Church News Notes, May 24, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Not Forsaken: The Story of Hope is a new autobiography by Pastor Courtney Lewis of Chicago. He grew up in the Henry Horner and LeClaire Court projects, raised by a single mom who died about the time he graduated from high school. A problem child, he was kicked out of multiple schools. He was even kicked out of Sunday School the first time he attended. But through the patient love of Christian workers and education in a sound Bible College, he was saved and prepared for the ministry. He and his wife, Portia, were both bus kids. Today they have four daughters and are leading Cornerstone Baptist Church of Chicago (founded in 2008), where the life-changing gospel is being proclaimed, souls are being saved out of gross darkness, real conversions are happening, godly families are being built, and children and youth are being discipled for Jesus Christ. Not Forsaken describes the only true hope for inner city communities that have been devastated by the filthy pop culture, woke propagandizing public schools, and runaway socialism which has destroyed the family. Politics has no answer. The great need is for the bold proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the establishment of sound New Testament churches that practice a pilgrim lifestyle in the midst of a corrupt generation. The great need is godly leadership.
https://www.notforsaken2710.com/home
PRO-LIFE CHRISTIAN SENTENCED TO NEARLY FIVE YEARS IN PRISON (Friday Church News Notes, May 24, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Pro-life Christian,” Disntr.com, May 14, 2024: “In one of the most ominous displays of the Biden administration’s hostility toward pro-life advocates, Lauren Handy, a courageous anti-abortion activist, has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for protesting at the Washington Surgi-Clinic in D.C. On October 22, 2020, Handy, alongside fellow activists from the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), orchestrated a peaceful blockade to advocate for the lives of the unborn. Handy, who had made an appointment at the clinic under a pseudonym, led a group that used chains, ropes, and furniture to block the doors, preventing access to the facility. Despite their peaceful intentions, they were met with severe legal repercussions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act--a statute increasingly weaponized by leftists to silence conservative Christians challenging the abortion industry. Handy and her co-defendants, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, William Goodman, and Herb Geraghty, were convicted of conspiracy against rights and FACE Act violations. These charges reflect the Biden administration’s aggressive stance against pro-life activism. Handy’s protests, aimed at protecting the unborn, have been harshly punished while leftist activists--whether it be climate protesters, BLM agitators, ANTIFA, or whatever--often face minimal consequences for illegal protests.”
THE BAPTIST HEZEKIAH (Friday Church News Notes, May 24, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Benjamin Keach (1640-1704), who pastored the church that was later made famous by Charles Spurgeon, experienced a miraculous healing in answer to prayer. “Mr. Keach was of a very weak constitution, being often afflicted with illness, and once to such a degree that he was given over by the physicians; and several of the ministers, and his relations, had taken their leave of him as a dying man and past all hope of recovery; but the Rev. Mr. Hanserd Knollys, seeing his friend and brother in the gospel so near expiring, betook himself to prayer, and in a very extraordinary manner begged that God would spare him, and add unto his days the time he granted to his servant Hezekiah. As soon as he had ended his prayer, he said, ‘Brother Keach, I shall be in heaven before you,’ and quickly after left him. So remarkable was the answer of God to this good man’s prayer, that we cannot omit it; though it may be discredited by some, there were many who could bear incontestable testimony to the fact. Mr. Keach recovered of that illness and lived just fifteen years afterwards” (Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle: Its History and Work).
A PASTOR AND FAMILY THAT REJECTED CCM (Friday Church News Notes, May 24, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - We received the following testimony recently: “You are so right about this contemporary Christian music--rock and roll and country. My husband and I were in contemporary worship churches for about 20 years. Then, when he went into full time ministry after retiring from the military, he filled in for a traditional church when he was in Bible college. Hymnal and organ and piano. It was so refreshing!!! The church he took full time after that one was also traditional, and we were with them 10 years. The church he now has is a traditional church with hymnal, organ, and piano, and we have been with them 16 years. Our sons, who were raised in the church that we were with for 10 years, loved the traditional service. Our younger son is with us now in our present church. When they went to Bible college (the same one my husband went to) which has contemporary worship during daily chapel same as when we were there, they hated it. They are now in their mid-30's and refuse to worship in any church that does not have hymns and traditional style worship. Keep teaching on this subject, it is most needed. For my husband and I, the Lord took us right out of the contemporary worship and music scene and we are so grateful for it. It put our whole family back on a right track. We have been with traditional music for worship for about 30 years now.”
MAJOR NEW STUDY - “MANY FAMILIES TAKE PATIENTS OFF LIFE SUPPORT TOO SOON AFTER TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURIES” (Friday Church News Notes, May 24, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Fox News, May 19, 2024: “Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and other universities analyzed ‘potential clinical outcomes’ for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) who were removed from life support, according to a press release. The study included 1,392 patients who were treated in 18 trauma centers across the U.S. over a 7½-year period. Using a mathematical model, the researchers compared patients for whom life support was withdrawn to similar patients who were kept on life support. Among the group for whom life support was not withdrawn, more than 40% recovered at least some independence, according to a press release. The researchers also discovered that the notion of remaining in a vegetative state was an ‘unlikely outcome’ six months after injury. Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, was not involved in the research but said it was a ‘very important’ study. ‘Previous research shows a high-level recovery from mild TBI and a significant recovery percentage even with moderate to severe injury,’ Siegel told Fox News Digital. Based on the study findings, Yelena Bodien, PhD, of the Department of Neurology’s Center for neurotechnology and neurorecovery at Massachusetts General Hospital, recommended that clinicians should be ‘very cautious’ with ‘irreversible decisions’ like withdrawing life support in the days following traumatic brain injury. ‘Families should also be aware of our results so that they can advocate for delaying a decision to discontinue life support if this is aligned with what they believe their loved one would want,’ she added.” (For more on this subject, see “Do We Have the Right to Die,” www.wayoflife.org.)
D.L. MOODY CAME TO BETTER UNDERSTAND BIBLICAL CONVERSION (Friday Church News Notes, May 24, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In his later years, Evangelist D.L. Moody came to understand the necessity of being very careful in dealing with those who profess faith in Christ and to look for evidence of salvation. He said, “For the last few years I have been a good deal more anxious for a deep and true work in professing converts than I have for great numbers. If a man professes to be converted without realizing the heinousness of his sins, he is likely to be one of those stony ground hearers who don’t amount to anything. ... I believe we are making a woeful mistake in taking so many people into the Church who have never been truly convicted of sin. William Dawson once told this story to illustrate how humble the soul must be before it can find peace. He said that at a revival meeting, a little lad who was used to Methodist ways, went home to his mother and said, ‘Mother, John So-and-so is under conviction and seeking for peace, but he will not find it tonight, mother.’ ‘Why, William?’ she said. ‘Because he is only down on one knee, mother, and he will never get peace until he is down on both knees.’ Until conviction of sin brings us down on both knees, until we are completely humbled, until we have no hope in ourselves left, we cannot find the Savior” (D.L. Moody, Results of True Repentance).
U.S. ARMY CELEBRATES 75,000TH BIRTHDAY (Friday Church News Notes, May 24, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, May 17, 2024: “We at Creation Moments are often asked, where do evolutionists get all those millions of years? It seems they are always finding rocks and fossils that are tens or hundreds of thousands or even millions of years old. Some years ago, scientists discovered human bones in California buried under thick layers of mud. Scientific authorities studied the bones and dated them at about 75,000 years old. Digging deeper, scientists discovered an old United States Army button! Was the U.S. Army around 75,000 years ago, or was the dating method unreliable? More recently, an archaeological team from a Japanese university discovered drawings on a cave wall on a Japanese island. This important discovery was dated at 10,000 to 13,000 years old. When one of the local residents of the island heard about the discovery, he stepped forward to confess that as a boy he often drew on the walls of the cave with charcoal. Can you imagine the misery we would have if modern medicine was only as reliable as these dating methods? The simple answer to where evolutionary scientists get all those years is that they make them up. There is no machine or scientific magic that tells a scientist that a rock or fossil is tens of thousands or millions of years old. The oldest and most accurate record of ancient times that we humans have is the Bible, and the Bible leaves no room for tens of thousands or millions of years! Notes: Jackson, Wayne. ‘Scientific red faces,’ Reasoning from Revelation, v. II, n. 1, Jan. 1990, p. 3.”
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).
https://www.notforsaken2710.com/home
PRO-LIFE CHRISTIAN SENTENCED TO NEARLY FIVE YEARS IN PRISON (Friday Church News Notes, May 24, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Pro-life Christian,” Disntr.com, May 14, 2024: “In one of the most ominous displays of the Biden administration’s hostility toward pro-life advocates, Lauren Handy, a courageous anti-abortion activist, has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for protesting at the Washington Surgi-Clinic in D.C. On October 22, 2020, Handy, alongside fellow activists from the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), orchestrated a peaceful blockade to advocate for the lives of the unborn. Handy, who had made an appointment at the clinic under a pseudonym, led a group that used chains, ropes, and furniture to block the doors, preventing access to the facility. Despite their peaceful intentions, they were met with severe legal repercussions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act--a statute increasingly weaponized by leftists to silence conservative Christians challenging the abortion industry. Handy and her co-defendants, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, William Goodman, and Herb Geraghty, were convicted of conspiracy against rights and FACE Act violations. These charges reflect the Biden administration’s aggressive stance against pro-life activism. Handy’s protests, aimed at protecting the unborn, have been harshly punished while leftist activists--whether it be climate protesters, BLM agitators, ANTIFA, or whatever--often face minimal consequences for illegal protests.”
THE BAPTIST HEZEKIAH (Friday Church News Notes, May 24, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Benjamin Keach (1640-1704), who pastored the church that was later made famous by Charles Spurgeon, experienced a miraculous healing in answer to prayer. “Mr. Keach was of a very weak constitution, being often afflicted with illness, and once to such a degree that he was given over by the physicians; and several of the ministers, and his relations, had taken their leave of him as a dying man and past all hope of recovery; but the Rev. Mr. Hanserd Knollys, seeing his friend and brother in the gospel so near expiring, betook himself to prayer, and in a very extraordinary manner begged that God would spare him, and add unto his days the time he granted to his servant Hezekiah. As soon as he had ended his prayer, he said, ‘Brother Keach, I shall be in heaven before you,’ and quickly after left him. So remarkable was the answer of God to this good man’s prayer, that we cannot omit it; though it may be discredited by some, there were many who could bear incontestable testimony to the fact. Mr. Keach recovered of that illness and lived just fifteen years afterwards” (Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle: Its History and Work).
A PASTOR AND FAMILY THAT REJECTED CCM (Friday Church News Notes, May 24, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - We received the following testimony recently: “You are so right about this contemporary Christian music--rock and roll and country. My husband and I were in contemporary worship churches for about 20 years. Then, when he went into full time ministry after retiring from the military, he filled in for a traditional church when he was in Bible college. Hymnal and organ and piano. It was so refreshing!!! The church he took full time after that one was also traditional, and we were with them 10 years. The church he now has is a traditional church with hymnal, organ, and piano, and we have been with them 16 years. Our sons, who were raised in the church that we were with for 10 years, loved the traditional service. Our younger son is with us now in our present church. When they went to Bible college (the same one my husband went to) which has contemporary worship during daily chapel same as when we were there, they hated it. They are now in their mid-30's and refuse to worship in any church that does not have hymns and traditional style worship. Keep teaching on this subject, it is most needed. For my husband and I, the Lord took us right out of the contemporary worship and music scene and we are so grateful for it. It put our whole family back on a right track. We have been with traditional music for worship for about 30 years now.”
MAJOR NEW STUDY - “MANY FAMILIES TAKE PATIENTS OFF LIFE SUPPORT TOO SOON AFTER TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURIES” (Friday Church News Notes, May 24, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Fox News, May 19, 2024: “Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and other universities analyzed ‘potential clinical outcomes’ for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) who were removed from life support, according to a press release. The study included 1,392 patients who were treated in 18 trauma centers across the U.S. over a 7½-year period. Using a mathematical model, the researchers compared patients for whom life support was withdrawn to similar patients who were kept on life support. Among the group for whom life support was not withdrawn, more than 40% recovered at least some independence, according to a press release. The researchers also discovered that the notion of remaining in a vegetative state was an ‘unlikely outcome’ six months after injury. Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, was not involved in the research but said it was a ‘very important’ study. ‘Previous research shows a high-level recovery from mild TBI and a significant recovery percentage even with moderate to severe injury,’ Siegel told Fox News Digital. Based on the study findings, Yelena Bodien, PhD, of the Department of Neurology’s Center for neurotechnology and neurorecovery at Massachusetts General Hospital, recommended that clinicians should be ‘very cautious’ with ‘irreversible decisions’ like withdrawing life support in the days following traumatic brain injury. ‘Families should also be aware of our results so that they can advocate for delaying a decision to discontinue life support if this is aligned with what they believe their loved one would want,’ she added.” (For more on this subject, see “Do We Have the Right to Die,” www.wayoflife.org.)
D.L. MOODY CAME TO BETTER UNDERSTAND BIBLICAL CONVERSION (Friday Church News Notes, May 24, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In his later years, Evangelist D.L. Moody came to understand the necessity of being very careful in dealing with those who profess faith in Christ and to look for evidence of salvation. He said, “For the last few years I have been a good deal more anxious for a deep and true work in professing converts than I have for great numbers. If a man professes to be converted without realizing the heinousness of his sins, he is likely to be one of those stony ground hearers who don’t amount to anything. ... I believe we are making a woeful mistake in taking so many people into the Church who have never been truly convicted of sin. William Dawson once told this story to illustrate how humble the soul must be before it can find peace. He said that at a revival meeting, a little lad who was used to Methodist ways, went home to his mother and said, ‘Mother, John So-and-so is under conviction and seeking for peace, but he will not find it tonight, mother.’ ‘Why, William?’ she said. ‘Because he is only down on one knee, mother, and he will never get peace until he is down on both knees.’ Until conviction of sin brings us down on both knees, until we are completely humbled, until we have no hope in ourselves left, we cannot find the Savior” (D.L. Moody, Results of True Repentance).
U.S. ARMY CELEBRATES 75,000TH BIRTHDAY (Friday Church News Notes, May 24, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, May 17, 2024: “We at Creation Moments are often asked, where do evolutionists get all those millions of years? It seems they are always finding rocks and fossils that are tens or hundreds of thousands or even millions of years old. Some years ago, scientists discovered human bones in California buried under thick layers of mud. Scientific authorities studied the bones and dated them at about 75,000 years old. Digging deeper, scientists discovered an old United States Army button! Was the U.S. Army around 75,000 years ago, or was the dating method unreliable? More recently, an archaeological team from a Japanese university discovered drawings on a cave wall on a Japanese island. This important discovery was dated at 10,000 to 13,000 years old. When one of the local residents of the island heard about the discovery, he stepped forward to confess that as a boy he often drew on the walls of the cave with charcoal. Can you imagine the misery we would have if modern medicine was only as reliable as these dating methods? The simple answer to where evolutionary scientists get all those years is that they make them up. There is no machine or scientific magic that tells a scientist that a rock or fossil is tens of thousands or millions of years old. The oldest and most accurate record of ancient times that we humans have is the Bible, and the Bible leaves no room for tens of thousands or millions of years! Notes: Jackson, Wayne. ‘Scientific red faces,’ Reasoning from Revelation, v. II, n. 1, Jan. 1990, p. 3.”
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).
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Distributed by Way of Life Literature., publisher of Bible Study Materials and reports for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Established in 1974, Way of Life Literature is a fundamental Baptist preaching and publishing ministry based in Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. Brother Cloud lives in South Asia where he has been a church planting missionary since 1979. OUR GOAL IN THIS PARTICULAR ASPECT OF OUR MINISTRY (REPORTS AND FRIDAY NEWS) IS NOT DEVOTIONAL. IS TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO ASSIST PREACHERS IN THE PROTECTION OF THE CHURCHES IN THIS APOSTATE HOUR.
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
The Way of Life Literature preaching and publishing ministry is based at Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. A mail stop is maintained in Port Huron, Michigan.
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