I am rejoicing over the privilege to once again serve two precious congregations of believers in Ocala, FL, in recent weeks. The first conference was held at Woodside Baptist Church, where I taught 6 messages from ‘The Armor of God’ in Ephesians 6. I would roughly estimate that ’90% of the assembled group on Sunday morning stayed with us until the last message. This body of believers exhibited such a precious hunger for the teachings on our call to ‘fight the good fight of faith’! The following testimony is just one of many encouraging comments on what the Spirit of God accomplished among us during those days. The following words are from the Associate Pastor and dear friend, Kenny Rodrigue. “Words cannot express our eternal gratitude for God graciously sending you to us, to again refocus our Christian lives on what really matters! From the pastors and the  entire body of Christ at Woodside, we want to say THANK YOU! It was obvious to me, because of the depth of the teaching, that you prepared hours upon hours with much thought, meditation and prayer, to rightly divide the Word of God. Your teaching that we are redeemed to fight the good fight struck my heart, because I am a man who does not like conflict. However, I understand now that we are not battling people. We are battling Satan and his minions. Consequently, when God’s character and truth are under attack, we must battle for our Commander-in Chief, the Lord Jesus Christ! Another great reminder, in your teaching, was that our armor is the Lord Jesus Christ. My armor is not comprised of what I can do to protect myself. My armor is not my faith in my faith. It is my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as my protection, in all 6 areas-the belt of truth; the breastplate of righteousness; the shoes of the Gospel of peace; the shield of faith in the One who is our shield; the helmet of the assurance of glory to come; and the sword of the Spirit! Bro. Ed, the sword of the Spirit session convicted both me and my wife that we need to purposefully prepare ourselves for the daily battle, both to defend and to go on the advance, by employing the Word of God and not our own words. We must employ the mighty power of the truth of the Word. Woodside Baptist Church has purposed to prepare for all of the possible situations that we may encounter in the future, in relation to the edification of the saints and the evangelism of the lost, by employing the Sword, which the Spirit has provided. Thus, we will heed your teaching and seek the Lord for the appropriate verses to employ in each situation. Once we have completed this extensive list, we will put the list out to our congregation, so that we can prepare our people for the battle that is before us. Then, as you taught us, we can trust the Holy Spirit to bring the appropriate dagger that we need to defend and advance for the glory of our Captain! This teaching was extremely impactful to the glory of Jesus Christ and the building of His church. We love you, Pastor Kenny Rodrigue

Our Lord also blessed us with a tremendous week of ministry with my dear brothers and sisters in Christ at Olivet Baptist Church in Ocala. These precious bodies of believers have been rooted and grounded in the solid truths of the Word of God for many years, under the ministry of Pastor Mike Davis, a dear friend in Christ. I was privileged to teach my workbook, entitled ‘Redeemed to Worship’ to these very hungry and teachable disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God brought illumination, application, renovation and transformation to many of these precious followers of Jesus. The following is a testimony from Pastor Mike. “Greetings Bro. Ed, What a joy it continues to be to count you not only as a dear brother in Christ, but also a precious friend. I have always greatly benefited from your ministry at Olivet Baptist Church over the years. But this time was very special to me personally and to our church corporately. I want to give a testimony about the dramatic impact of your faithful teaching on this subject, “Redeemed to Worship”. I was greatly encouraged and edified by this Bible conference. How appropriate it was for each of us to consider the truth that our glorious God has saved us to worship Him, in this season of ‘social distancing’. For you powerfully reminded us that there must not be any ‘spiritual distancing’ between the true worshiper and his Lord and God! I was very challenged, convicted, and at the same time comforted by each of the sessions. For in a true Puritan sense of the work, the teaching was a combination of ‘light and heat’! You set before us the penetrating truths of passages that I myself have studied and preached over many years. The session on magnifying Christ, from Philippians 1:20-21 spoke greatly to me, on a personal level. This  call to magnify Christ in my life was a refreshing reminder to me that my entire life is to be wrapped up in worship and adoration of the Living God. Furthermore, to proclaim the majesty of our Lord, through both our lives and our lips, must be the supreme goal of my life. Likewise, the sessions from John 4 were tremendous. You set before us the true nature of worship. As a matter of fact, I could walk through each one of the ten sessions, and testify to the mighty impact on our lives. I have heard countless testimonies from our members, as to the tremendous impact that each of the sessions have made in their lives. But the ones, which seem to have impacted the people the most, were the three sessions on Job and ‘The Crisis of Worship’. This was a tremendous treatment of the life of Job and the manner in which he worshiped the Lord God in the midst of satanic accusation and attack, which were both permitted and limited by the Father, for God’s own purpose and glory! I would highly recommend to any church that they schedule this conference, as soon as possible. For these are timely truths which the church desperately needs to hear. There has never been a greater need for the church to be the church, then right now! Furthermore, the church exists primarily to worship God in Spirit and in truth; as well as to proclaim His excellencies to the world! Thank you for your faithfulness to serve our Lord dear brother. We are looking forward to having you come again soon! In Christ’ service, Michael Davis, Teaching and Preaching Elder, Olivet Baptist Church, Ocala, Florida”