Category Archives: Scripture

Ministers’ Conference log

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Tuesday – DAY ONE

I’m here on the beautiful campus of Messiah College for the first day of the Banner of Truth Trust (publishers) USA Ministers’ Conference. I’ve been attending this since 1992 — 15 years. It is really a highlight of the year for me.

I rode down (5.5 hours) with Pastor Mark Bell of Redeemer PCA in Queensbury, NY, and one of his elders — in a hybrid car no less! I took a turn driving, and noticed that as you drive, there are gauges on the dash board which indicate fuel(s) being used — gas or electircal and “efficiency.” (I was the most efficient driver today!) We arrived an hour before the first session, signed-in and unpacked in our rooms. I have my own bedroom in the dorm/suite this year (something to do with “snoring” I guess?).

The opening session was a sermon on PHILIPPIANS 1:21, where Paul declares, “for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” The sermon really puts any pastoral discouragements or troubles in proper perspective, and sets a fine precedent for the conference — that God’s Word will illumine our situation, and the way we should go in the service of our Lord.

Tonight, one of the greatest living preachers (in my opinion), Dr Sinclair Ferguson, will speak to us on HOLINESS, which is the theme of this conference. I hope the Lord will use His Word preached to mold myself, and these 250 other pastors & elders into holier men of God, who are bold for the gospel in an very un-holy age. Please pray for me, the others attending, and the men who will speak to us.

All for now.
Pastor Dave Bissett

The thought of God…

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As i fiinished off today’s sermon, here is a precious quote from one of the best pastoral/devotional writers alive, REV. MAURICE ROBERTS, from his first book of essays, The Thought of God, (published by the Banner of Truth).

“To have God in his mind and thoughht is the believer’s constant source of strength. The martyr laguishes in the flames but his mind flies upward to God his Savior and looks forward blissfully to the glory that awaits him as his body sinks to ashes. The imprisoned Christian forgets the harsh regime of the camp, the daily grind and grueling labor, as his mind soars upward on the wings of hope to remember God. The weary missionary, struggling with unfamiliar syllables and convoluted grammar in his appointed sphere of service sees beyond the frustrations of the hour as he remembers God, his ‘exceeding great reward’ [Gen.15:1]. ….the thought of God enlivens all action.

“The thought of God should be the Christian’s panacea. It should cure all his ills at a stroke. …Nothing can approach in beauty the idea of the true and living God. That there exists a Being who is infinite in power, knowledge and goodness, that that Being cares for me with a perfect love as though I were the only man in existence, that He loved me before I was born and created me to enjoy Him eternally and that He sent His Son to suffer the agony of the cross to secure my eternal happiness — that, surely, must be a thought to end all sorrow. It ought to be and it often is.”
— pp. 4-5
Thought of God book cover

God bless you this Lord’s Day,
Pastor David