I SAW CHRISTMAS UP CLOSE

Christmas: A spell bound moment in time captivated by bright eyes and expectant heart. They are those who will be giving and those who will be the receivers. In any case every one will be happy the getter's and the givers. isn't it strange how though the world make so much fuss about God and His sent son that around this time of the year there is a general change of attitude and behaviour. I think that is strange.

This however should not alarm us now. The truth of the matter is that no one believes in God until their back are up against the wall and there is no where Else to turn. The greatest promise made to His creation was i will never leave you nor will i forsake you and maybe that is why so many people do not clammier after God. They believe that He is true to His word and so they are willing to take their chances.

Jesus said in speaking to the pharisees and scribe "He who do the will of my father is the one who love me and i will love him and he will be loved by My father". The implication here is that while all of us may claim God as our father, He only recognizes some of us particularly those who follow and do His will.

Christmas should teach us that if we are to see it for what it truly worth we should see it like God saw it. A time of sharing, giving and celebrating God's gift of His son. Seeing it up close is when we look in the eyes of a man or a woman a boy or girl and see the change we bring because we were able to share in helping to brighten their lives. Have you seen it up close recently.

Christmas!!! aught it's something SPECIAL Thank God

KEEPING THE FLAME BURNING

Love and marriage!! it's such a complicated thing these days. Gone are the day when people got married for the sake of Love. every thing has change so drastically in this affair call love and marriage. The prenoptuals and the testing of blood type are clear signs that marriages to a great extent is no longer just about love but about making sure and yet the ironey is that there are so many people who if they were question about the premaratal affair would confess that they had at one time or the other been engage in sexual involvement before the actual marriage took place. To me this is the greatest level of hypocrocy. someone said about marriage and i quote "Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life."
JANE AUSTEN, Pride and Prejudice

It never an easy affair you don't believe me ? try it.

Church Ministry

Lake Independence Baptist church has taken on some bold steps by being engage in ministries that were not always common to Baptist practice. We maintain that our last order given to us by our commander in chief was to “go ye therefore into the world and preach the gospel”. Now what is clear is that He did not gave us detailed directions and instruction on how this aught to be done however He did say that greater thing will we do than He had done. We can theorize all we want about that statement but at the end of the day I believe simply put the point Jesus making was that we were to use any means necessary to bring the lost brother/sister to Christ. It is from this platform that we will try what ever is needed or necessary to use as many methods as possible to this end. Ministries to us mean becoming innovative, visionary and spiritually conscious. Sometimes our practices are outdated and personality driven they are no longer captivating our intented target. They lack the punch to capture the changing environment we are now living in. In doing this it May seems like we are program driven and not people focus. While the former is not necessarily true the latter hits exactly the spot Jesus use to hit. Jesus was people focus because it was they that He came to change. If we haven’t gotten that by now maybe that is the reason ministry for some people is so hard to grasp.
In the community where we serve, there is a population explosion when it comes to children. Quickly we would then understand that unlike the phrase “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” what is true is that the way to infiltrate the families of our community comes through their children. To this end our focal target is the children.
The Lord has given us vision for a day care that is slowly but surely taking grip and an awana program for the older kids. These two focal ministries bring the parents to church that would not ordinarily come. Further more the day care is subsidize by the church because unlike the other daycares around we see this as a ministry particularly to the poorer class.

Vision is being able to take something that you can’t see how that thing can materialize, putting it in Gods hand trusting Him to make that thing happen. That is primarily what we are doing in this area. God knows resources in these parts is scarce.

That is what we have been doing if you fee led or impressed to assist us in any way, you can become a part of this vision too. You can send what ever you may think can assist us with our daycare or the awana program. Send me a cheque I will put it to good use in these kids for the sake of Christ. My address is right there.

From the Pastor's Desk

I am Pastor Ashley Anthony Rocke, an ordain minister of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I bacame a minister some thirteen years ago, however, have been serving the Lord almost twenty nine years. I am married to a beautiful lady the Lord placed in my Life and for the last twenty three years. God has blessed us with three beautiful children, Jamie-Lee 21 years, Tamarie 19 years and Ashley II who is 17 years old. I have been pastoring the Lake Independence Baptist church in Belize City for the past 17 years. It has always been my dream to make available to others what I believe the Lord, over my 28 years as a christian made available to me. I will be using this site to impart as much guidance as I can to assist what I believe has most assuredly become a troubled world.

When I surrendered to become a follower of Christ, it was not only me alone that was heading that direction. Wonderfully so many of the men and women who also came to know the love of our savior are still fervently in persuit of allowing Jesus to lead and guide them into mind and life changing situations.

The gospel of Jesus is nothing to be ashamed of "for it is the power of God unto salvation". Before the age of nineteen if you were to ask me what I thought about Jesus, there isn't a lot you would have gotten from me. Today, at 46 years of age, I can tell you that there was no greater thing that I could have done, than what I did at that age.

Jesus is not about things and circumstances, He is primarily about reconciliation. His mission in my life was to allow me to find new life in Him. I quickly realized that it does not matter to the Lord out of what hole I had crawl, what matter to Him was that I was willing to come out of that hole. If you stay tuned to what I will be imparting, my greatest prayer is that it will enriched your life to such a degree that you will become a thousand time over more than what I am Today.