Important BLCS Update for July

I hope everyone is having a blessed summer time. I want to bring you up to date on several current events with the Seminary.

1. New Professor of Hebraic Heritage Studies Appointed

Dr. Bruce R. Booker has recently accepted the position as Associate Professor of Hebraic Heritage Studies. Bruce has his B.B.S. with BLCS and then went on to complete an M.A. & Ph.D. at Columbia Pacific University. He is an ordained Messianic Rabbi with Messianic Bureau International and pastors Beth Yeshua Messianic Fellowship in Priest River, ID. Bruce has authored several books dealing with the Hebraic understanding of our faith.

Dr. Booker is currently undertaking updating our Hebraic Heritage courses on the Torah. He will be systematically teaching through all of the Torah portions this next year and will be recording his lectures for use by BLCS. Dr. Booker has a great love for our Messiah and a powerful depth of understanding of Scripture from a Hebraic mindset.

2. New Book by Dr. Booker Available for Free Download at Our Website

Dr. Booker has been gracious enough to provide a copy of his new book "What If?" in Acrobat - PDF format. You will need Acrobat Reader V 7 to open the file. You can download this 70 page book at the URL below:

http://www.biblical-life.com/swrc/students/What%20If%20Book.pdf

I encourage all of our students and graduates to download and read this wonderfully thought-provoking book!

3. First Annual BLCS Conference & Graduation Scheduled

Mark your calendars for June 8 - 10 of next year. We are planning for this annual BLCS Bible Conference and Graduation here in Springfield, MO. This conference will allow you to meet some of the professors at BLCS you have learned to love. We are planning two full days of bible teaching and a graduation on Saturday evening.

We already have confirmed the following speakers: Dr. Bruce Booker, Dr. John Looper and Dr. Michael Lake.

Springfield is only 30 minutes from Branson, MO - the #2 family vacation town in America. So bring your family and then enjoy some of the recreation in Branson.
We will be posting more information as we get into 2007. We are looking forward to seeking all of you there!

Join the Biblical Life Prayer Team

We now have a group site for our Biblical Life Spiritual Warfare Advancement Team. Join us in sharing prayer requests and teachings on prayer, fasting, and paths to true spiritual victory through Jesus and the Word of God. The site is:


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bl-swat/

A Call to a Life of Fasting

International unrest, drought, flooding, spiritual apathy, believers under spiritual attack - all are signs of the times. I recently ministered to our local body for the need to re-establish a biblical lifestyle of fasting to the Body of Christ. I am calling for all BLCS students, graduates and UFGC ministers to join us each Thursday to fast and seek the face of God.

Download this important message in MP3 format at: http://www.biblical-life.com/swrc/

If you only download one message I post all year and heed it, it MUST be this message!

Vacation Time at BLCS

It happens this time every year. All of our staff members are looking forward to vacation time. As all of you know, we set a very high standard in customer service to our student body. This requires long days and a lot of hard work. So our staff has really earned their vacation time.

Our offices will be closed from June 17 through July 4 for summer vacation.

We are working have to make sure every enrollment is processed, every shipment of materials made, every course graded and every letter answered before we shut down at 4:00pm on Friday. We want to leave for vacation with a clear conscious - work ethic and empty inboxes. Any correspondence or orders received after the 16th will not be processed until our return on July 5.

On a personal note: Don't forget to make time this summer to spend some extra quality time with your family too. They all are a precious gift from God!

Prayer Closet Series Now Complete

All six sessions to the Prayer Closet are now posted on our website in MP3 format. To download them, go to: http://www.biblical-life.com/swrc/

Fourth Lecture Now Posted on the Prayer Closet

We have just posted the fourth lecture in the "Prayer Closet Series" to our website. These lectures are in reduced MP3 format to make downloading easier. You can download them at:

http://www.biblical-life.com/swrc/

Dr. Coke doing Better

Dr. Coke is doing much better. He was with us in our trip to the new Bible College in Mexico the second week of May. It is going to take him a while to completely get his strength back. He was able to do what he needed, but seemed to tire quickly. Keep him in prayer that God would completely renew his strength!

Outstanding Software for Pastors

Over the years, I have used Minister's Notebook software from Parsons Tech to keep my activities as a minister in. Each time I used it I found myself saying "Man, there is a whole lot more I would like to see in this program." But Parsons never seemed to do it.

I just ran across one of the best software packages for Pastors, it is called "The Pastor's Study" from RCL Software. It is everything Minister's Notebook should have been. Complete database management on sermons, illustrations, contacts, counseling notes, journal, expenses, prayer list, visitations . . . you name it and it is there. The cost? An affordable $44.95! It will also link with MS Word, MS Powerpoint and your favorite Bible program! Check it out for yourself at:

http://www.rclsoftware.com/tpsdesc.htm

Let them know that BLCS told you about the program!

Important Message for All Biblical Life Students & Graduates

We received this e-mail from the office of Dr. Karl Coke earlier this week:

I have an urgent prayer request. Dr. Coke was admitted to the hospital late Friday night. His stomach flu virus still hadn't gone completely away and it had spread to his gall bladder. It turns out that his gall bladder was completely dead, gang green, and poisoning his blood stream. He might have died if he had waited any longer. His gall bladder had swelled up so much that it was starting to wrap around his liver. He just had another procedure to fix a leak in his liver. It was a success. He is still in a lot of pain and very tired and exhausted. The doctors haven't said how long his recovery will be. Hopefully, he won't have to have any more invasive surgery's. Today he was able to walk down the hall, but then was really tired. He is trying to rest as much as possible. We will keep you posted when we can.

Dr. Coke is doing the best he can. He is awake and alert and appreciates everyone's prayers. Obviously, he will be out of the office for a while and cannot work.

The good news is that Dr. Coke is at home recuperating. If any of you have had surgery anything like this, you know that it will take some time for him to get completely back on his feet. I need all of our students to do two things:

(1) Pray for Dr. Coke’s quick recovery for this emergency surgery. Dr. Coke, Dr. Looper and myself are schedule to fly to Mexico to train pastors on May 11-15. Dr. Coke is still bent on making this long journey. He needs our prayer support in this important venture.

(2) If you are in full time ministry (and not a Pastor), you know the only way to keep funds coming in is to be out in the Body of Christ teaching and preaching. With him flat on his back for a month before the Mexico trip and his future travel limited to his strength, he could use some financial support too. I know that many of you have been blessed by the wonderful materials of his that we use in our curriculum. Now would be a good time to bless him back.

Spend some time asking God how you could help. Some of our students could give $25.00 and others $250.00 or more. (BLCS provided a love gift today of $500.00) The important thing is to ask the Holy Spirit how much you should give this dear man of God and then be obedient. If we all work together, we can see him physically restored and financially maintained through this trial.

You should make your love gifts payable to: KCEA and mailed it directly to:

Karl Coke Evangelistic Association
P. O. Box 10285
Charlotte, NC 28212-5668

Make sure to include a short note of encouragement to him as well!

Article - A Calling to Study

Being Called to Study
by Michael K. Lake, Th.D., D.R.E.

Several months ago, we introduced the new Biblical Life Bulletins (not to be confused with the Biblical Life Journal). The express purpose of these bulletins is twofold: (1) to provide additional information for those seeking to begin and/or continue their education for ministry via nontraditional methods; and (2) to provide supportive instruction for our students that are already involved in continuing their education. In the first bulletin, we dealt with many “Prospective Student” issues, such as:

1. The call to ministry is a call to a lifetime of study.
2. Lack of transformation in the traditional Greco-Roman based educational model.
3. Abuses in nontraditional education:
4. Abuse of issuing unrealistic life experience credits.
5. Abuse of improper course examinations (i.e. open book exams).
6. Abuse of so watering down the educational process that no thesis or dissertation is required at the Masters and Doctoral levels.
7. How proper education should provide the research & study tools you will use the rest of your life.

If you missed this informative bulletin, you can download it in PDF format at our website (www.biblical-life.com/swrc/).

In the second issue, we gave solid tips to current students on how to get into the swing of study once again. These tools can be used well after a student graduates. In fact, as ministers they should be using them the rest of their lives. Again, if you missed this issue, you can download it in PDF at www.biblical-life.com/swrc/ .

With all of that said, let’s move on to the subject of this bulletin. We all should be familiar with the call to ministry. If you are not, the first thing I would ask you is: “Why are you looking to study for the ministry?” It is a calling where you know in the very depths of your heart that God has called you to one of the fivefold offices of ministry listed in Ephesians 4. You can run from it, but you can’t hide from it. It is in your heart and in your blood. You know that if you do not follow after the call and prepare for it that you will be miserable and miss God’s best in your life.

I have been involved in nontraditional education now for nearly a quarter of a century. Like the country singer used to sing, “I was country when country wasn’t cool.” Well, I was involved in theological education by extension (TEE) when it wasn’t cool either! In the early `80’s, we were pioneering many of the standards that are now common place in TEE. I said all that to say this, I have been around the block in training ministers for effective ministry. You need to realize that not only do you have a call to ministry, but you have a call to a specific school that you are to study with as well!

You need to realize that each school is different. God has placed certain emphases within each school. I am not talking about denominational differences either – although that can be a consideration for you. Each school will speak into your life in different ways and will give you different tools and paradigms for ministry. One school will have a set of tools and paradigms that you will need while another will not. This is not a matter of accreditation or cost. It is a matter of what the school speaks into your life. What makes this harder to realize is that you cannot always tell it from just looking at courses listed for a particular program or degree. There is an anointing and a spirit or attitude about each school that is imparted to their students. Unfortunately, in many traditional schools, the only spirit or attitude passed on is one of haughtiness and superiority.

Here are some steps to make the right choice:

1. PRAY. Ask the Holy Spirit’s guidance as you begin looking at schools and requesting catalogs. Does the Holy Spirit witness to you that you should look further into this school? Does the website information agree with your spirit?

2. Get the catalogs. If you feel the witnessing of the Holy Spirit about a particular school, request or download the catalog. If you download it, take the time to print it out.

3. Prayerfully read over the catalogs. Look for the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you read over them. He is trying to help you narrow the list of schools. You should have two piles of catalogs now – (1) the “no witness” pile and (2) the “Spirit-felt witness” pile.

4. Go back to the website. See if they have bulletins, articles, newsletters and samples of their courses on-line. See if they have some sample course lectures in MP3 or real audio stream. Read over the articles, sample lessons and listen to the sample lectures.

Now stop right here. What are you looking for: easy courses; something you can complete quickly? If you are, you need to go back to Mark 11 and learn the lesson of why Jesus cursed the fig tree. You need to look for materials that speak to your heart, that add something substantial to your spirit man, and that call for personal transformation. If the Holy Spirit is already speaking to you through the samples, how much more will He speak and transform your life through the complete program!

You will find articles, sample lessons and MP3 lectures at two locations on our website. Those URLs are:

www.biblical-life.com/swrc/
www.biblical-life.com/Library1.htm

Take the time to download everything you can there. (For the MP3 files, DSL will help.) Read through them, listen to them and seek the face of God while you are doing it.

5. Pick the right school & count the cost. Once you have found the school that is witnessed most by the Holy Spirit and their literature and samples speak most to your life, you are ready to count the cost. Now I am not just talking about the financial investment you are getting ready to make. That is important, and Jesus warns us to consider this before beginning such an endeavor (Luke 14:28-30). More than the financial investment, I am talking about several other things you must invest just as much of:

* Time
* Discipline
* Determination
* Prayer

You must be willing to roll up your sleeves and invest these things too. Without them, you will never graduate. You also need to realize another important truth. Are you ready?

The level of determination, discipline, prayer and time you invest in this call of preparation is the same level you will have in actually “doing” the ministry. If you can’t get it right here, you likely will not develop it once you are in full-time ministry! When you are ordained or installed as a Pastor, there is no super anointing that drives these things into your life. They are cultivated from the time you answer the call, and they are matured through the preparation process. So don’t drop the ball once you enroll. Make a schedule for prayer and study. Keep at it day after day – whether it is convenient or not (the devil will make sure it is never convenient). Take the time and do not let anything else steal that time from you. Make every study session count for the Kingdom.

6. Make application to the school the Holy Spirit has led you to. Don’t sit on it, take action and follow the leading and peace of the Holy Spirit.

7. Get your materials, make your plan of action, make your schedule and begin growing. Your life and the lives of those you minister to will never be the same!

BLCS has an emphasis on “where the rubber meets the road” theology. The Word is meant to be lived, not debated. We also place great emphasis on being Spirit-Filled and a balanced understanding of our Hebraic Heritage. This may or may not be right for you. What you do need to know is unless you have taken the steps I have outlined here, you may pick the wrong school. One thing that you need to lay aside in this journey is the attitude that you are shopping at some super store. It is not how cheap you can get the education or how quickly. Both may in the end lead you down the wrong path. Where is the Holy Spirit leading you? What school will place the most spiritual truths and biblical transformations into your life? These are the right questions to ask that will lead you to the school Almighty God has called you to study with!

If you are called to study with BLCS, it will be my greatest pleasure to welcome you as a new member of our student family. If God is calling you to another school, I ask that God would give you the grace and wisdom to find that school and to enroll.

First lecture posted on new series

We have begun a new series on "The Concepts of the Prayer Closet." The first session has been completed and the notes and audio lecture has been posted in MP3 format.

http://www.biblical-life.com/swrc/

Looking for Serious Prayer Warriors

Like the Marines, I am looking for a few good men and women - individuals of valor - individuals of prayer.

Over the past few weeks, the Spirit of God has been laying on my heart the need for true spiritual warriors - a kind of spiritual Special Forces in the Kingdom of God that will take the time to learn, develop and conduct spiritual warfare on behalf of the Kingdom of God. This is especially true for all of the students of Biblical Life College & Seminary. Not only must all of our students learn the art of spiritual warfare / intercessory prayer, but we all need a team that can be ready at a moment to pray for us as well.

Several things will be expected of each team member:

1. To learn how to conduct spiritual warfare prayers and intercessory prayers.
2. To learn how to pray until you are released by the Holy Spirit (i.e. know when you got the job done).
3. Be ready to respond in prayer whenever you receive an e-mail alert from my desk.
4. Make sure that your spam filter recognizes e-mails from blnews1@fidmail.com as legitimate e-mails. This program will not work if you cannot get the alerts.

Here is what I will do:

1. I will pass long the information on resources that I find that I believe will help you develop as a prayer warrior in the Kingdom of God.
2. I will try to write an article on spiritual warfare each month. It will be e-mailed to you as a part of an alert.
3. Whenever I teach on spiritual warfare, I will make the teachings available in MP3 for the cost of the materials and shipping. (I can fit 12 ninety minute lectures on one CD). I would estimate the cost & shipping at around $3.00.
4. Whenever we receive a prayer need or I am instructed by the Holy Spirit to call you all into prayer for something, I will e-mail you within the hour via Biblical Life Spiritual Warfare Alerts.

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If You Would Like to Join

If you are interested in joining this spiritual warfare team, please e-mail me directly at drlake@biblical-life.com. Make sure to type "Spiritual Warfare Alert" in the subject line. I will personally respond and place you in the special alert database.

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