Please be in prayer that the Lord will abundantly bless the 95th annual meeting of Bethany the second weekend of September, 2014 (Sept. 12-14). Elder Michael Gowens from Cullman Alabama is the invited minister. Elder Gowens is blessed with a great gift of preaching and in addition he is the author of about seventeen books from basic doctrines of grace to the glory to come and exposition of Luke, John, Hebrews, and etc. You can find these books and other Primitive Baptist books on the website Elder Gowens operates at www.sovgrace.net. He is looking forward to his first visit to Bethany and asks that prayers be made for the meeting. Elder Gowens will be coming with his wife he has been married to for over a year with two beautiful young girls that he took as his own with his wife, Lori Gowens.
Elder Gowens knows, as well as every other Primitive Baptist minister, that the Lord must bless with His Spirit for comfort and edification to occur. You just cannot schedule revival but the Lord must give it and that cannot happen in the absence of the Holy Spirit. Elder Gowens has great insight in the word of God but still the Lord must bless with His Spirit. Fathers give good gifts to their sons who ask them, but our Heavenly Father is far greater than any natural father. The scriptures tell us, “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:11-13). Pray that the Lord will “give” the Holy Spirit to Elder Gowens and all who come to worship and we might be revived in the service of our Heavenly Father.
I trust that all the church family is eager to come and worship the Lord in this special meeting to honour our God. This is a vital part of holding fast our profession of faith. The scriptures declare, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)Â And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:Â Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (Heb. 10:23-25). Please be an encouragement to the minister and fellow believers and be in attendance. We pray for good visitation from sister churches and all will be done decently and in order.
I regret to say that I will probably not be able to attend any of the meeting due to having open heart surgery on August 26. We pray the Lord will bless that with a positive outcome and His healing hand to avail. I certainly will miss the blessing of being at another annual meeting but will (if the Lord blesses) be thinking and praying for the windows of heaven to open and a blessing to be poured out on all in attendance.
Services Friday night at 7:00 p.m. Sept. 12. Saturday at 10:30 a.m. followed by lunch and Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. with supper at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at 10:30 a.m. followed by lunch.–August 23, 2014–Elder Larry Wise
