God continues to bless and open doors and we are so very grateful.  This past year has been busy with ministry and family.  Ashley and Hannah, Bryant, and Leighton are all doing great and enjoy living in Austin, TX and attending Great Hills Baptist Church.  God is blessing our church and helping us to become a radiant light in this city to shine the love of Jesus Christ.  We are televised each week on the local ABC channel each Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m.  I continue to hear from people around the city who tune us in and it is encouraging to hear that people are watching and growing in Christ.  I am blessed to be able to serve as the lead pastor here at Great Hills.

DFEA is going strongly I am so grateful to God for the open doors to preach His Word, for those who pray for this ministry, and for those who support us financially.  I was able to speak in various places this past year of 2011 and our TV broadcast on DIREC TV continues to go well.  We began broadcasting in September 2008 and it continues to go strongly, and I have to thank God and praise Him for His favor and blessing.  

One of the things that gives me great joy is DFEA blessing and helping others in need.  We have been supporting work in India through Alpha International Ministry, an SBC ministry through Guidestone called Mission Dignity, and we just started supporting monthly a wonderful ministry out of FBC Woodstock called HopeQuest or City of Refuge where they help minister to pastors who have fallen or needing help from stress and burnout. 

We are making available on our web site the new series of sermons I have preached called the Blessed Life, a study on the Beatitudes of Jesus in Matthew 5:1-12.  The 8-sermon series is available for $30.00.  We received a note today from a pastor in Kenya, Africa to whom we gave a copy, and his kind thank-you blessed us.  Here is what a pastor named Joseph wrote-- 

“I am writing to let you know that I have just received the CDs that you sent to me with thanksgiving. Thank you for keeping your word, and for sending me these wonderful gift. I am going to listen to these and I hope God will give me new revelation, and that I'll be able to share with my brothers and sisters the same. Again thank you so very much for these and may God bless your life and those working with you. Please extend my appreciation to Pastor Danny.”

We continue to mail out a newsletter and free sermon on CD to those on our mail out list.  I just heard from friends of ours in AL who received the latest one and they were so encouraging.  We will soon mail out our annual Christmas photo of the family.  If would like to receive our periodic updates and CDs please e-mail us your mailing address.  You can e-mail me at dforshee@dfea.com.

We are planning a trip to Israel in 2012!  I am taking a group from GHBC here in Austin and inviting you to join us for an 11-day trip to the Holy Land and to Petra in Jordan.  The tentative dates are December 26-January 5, 2012. 

Thank you again for all your prayers and financial support.  Because of your belief in our ministry we are able to broadcast on TV and also reach out and bless many others.  Please continue to lift us in prayer as we seek to serve until Jesus comes again!

Danny Forshee

John 3:16-17

The Lord is moving in wonderful ways and I am so very grateful.  God continues to bless and open doors for me to preach with DFEA.  Just yesterday I preached in Marshall, TX at East Texas Baptist University and what a blessing that was to be there and share the Great Commission of Jesus with hundreds of college students!  Thanks for your prayers as we continue to serve and broadcast on DIREC TV each week on channel 378.  And thank you for all who support us financially as your contributions make these broadcasts possible.

Below is the blog I wrote today for our church here at Great Hills Baptist in Austin, TX.

These words continue to ring in my heart: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 5:3)  Jesus spoke these words to the disciples and multitudes that gathered to hear Him preach.  This was His opening statement in what we call the Sermon on the Mount.  For the last two weeks I have been thinking about and studying this one verse of Scripture, as I begin the new series of messages entitled, The Blessed Life.  Jesus said the truly happy, blessed, joyful (makarios) are those who are poor in spirit; they are humble and not haughty; they are grateful, appreciative, and realize that without the Lord they are nothing.  John MacArthur aptly describes those who are poor in spirit, “Nobody ever entered on the basis of pride.  The doorway is very low, and only people who crawl can come in.  .  .  .  Poverty of spirit is the foundation of all graces, yet so much of our modern Christianity feeds on pride.  You might as well expect fruit to grow without trees if you think the graces of the Christian life grow without humility.”  (MacArthur, The Beatitudes:  The Only Way to Happiness, p. 57)

God reveals Himself to the poor in spirit initially in salvation and then daily in sanctification.  The poor in spirit are teachable, and they are a blessing to God and to others.  I met a genuinely poor in spirit man a few years back and his name is Dick Woodward and I will share his remarkable story this Sunday in my sermon.  He is 81 years old and though a bedridden quadriplegic, his messages are heard by a potential 4 billion people in the world through the Mini Bible College.  Woodward has these “Four Spiritual Secrets” that are indeed powerful:

I’m not, but He is, and I’m in Him and He is in me. 

I can’t, but He can, and I’m in Him and He is in me. 

I don’t want to, but He wants to, and I am in Him and He is in me.

I didn’t, but He did, because I was in Him and He was in me.”

On Wednesday evening here at Great Hills, we had a marvelous time in the Lord.  There were many children, teenagers, and adults all over our church campus and it blessed my heart to see so many engaged in prayer, fellowship, Bible Study, AWANA, and various choirs.  Thank you to all our teachers and workers who are making our Wednesday evening such a blessing to so many.

I continue to hear of reports of how our church is blessing those who were impacted by the terrible fires that swept across central Texas.   Our Great Hills Family is pitching in and helping and I want to thank you.  Mike Mericle continues to stay on top of these mission opportunities and send out helpful information indicating ways we can volunteer and help those who have lost all their material possessions.  What a blessing to see our people truly radiant and reaching out to others.

God has given me opportunities to travel to some of our Baptist colleges and universities and preach in the chapel services, and I have enjoyed seeing so many young people fired up in their relationship to Jesus.  On Wednesday morning I preached at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, TX.  It was great to be reunited with friends from the first church I served and also preach Christ and His Great Commission to these students.  God moved upon the chapel service and I am grateful to God to have had the privilege of preaching His Word.

I made it back in time to attend our prayer meeting here at Great Hills, and what a blessed time that was!  We had many men and women attend and the time just flew by!  God’s people lifted up many prayers of praise, confession, thanksgiving, and intercession, and it must have been a sweet smelling aroma to God.  I shared the following with those who attended:

The devil can tolerate a lot of what we do as Christians, but the thing he hates is the spiritual discipline and weapon of prayer.  Prayer touches the heart of God and moves the hand of the One who moves the world.  God loves for His children to call out to Him, to humble us ourselves before Him, and bring our requests before His throne.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was the Prince of Preachers in the 19^th century.  He was the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle for 30 years (1861-1891) and one day a group came to see the church and Spurgeon gave theme a tour.  This was a mega church before they knew what mega churches were!  They had around 6,000 each Sunday and the people came to hear the beloved Spurgeon preach the Sacred Scriptures.  The pastor led the group to the basement of the church where hundreds were crying out to God in prayer.  Spurgeon told the tour group as he pointed to the believers praying, “Here is the power house of our church.”  He did not take them to the pulpit, the fellowship hall, the education rooms, etc., but he took them to the prayer meeting! 

I am convinced that what we do here on Wednesday nights at 6:00 pm will have a direct impact upon our church and Sundays in particular!

I ask that you pause and pray right now specifically for our corporate worship service at 11:00 am this coming Lord’s Day as we begin this new series of sermons on the Beatitudes of Jesus.  Pray that we all will come poor in spirit ready to hear from God and receive all He desires to impart to us.  And pray also please for our Bible Life classes on Sunday morning and all our small groups scattered throughout Austin as they study the Beatitudes as well.  I am anticipating God moving upon us mightily as we study together the words of Jesus in corporate worship, in Bible Life, and in small groups.  Over these next 8 weeks we will learn much about the blessed life, how we can truly live in a way that honors God and brings contentment and peace to us.

May the Lord bless you with a great weekend.  Take some time to call and invite people to join you on Sunday.  Remember it is only good news if they hear it in time!  I believe this will be one of the most, if not the most, significant series of sermons I have ever preached in 47 years of living and 30 years of preaching!  I look forward to seeing you Sunday!

Danny Forshee

Matthew 5:3

Wow, time is flying by!  This has to be the busiest summer of my life.  We have moved out of our apartment, and we enjoy our new home here in Austin.  I have taken two mission trips, one to Canada and the other to Spain.  God has been so good to us and blessed us greatly.  We are working hard here at Great Hills Baptist Church and seeing God send out many from our church to the nations of the world.

Our national TV broadcast with the NRB on DIREC TV continues to go well and I continue to hear from people who tune us in and watch.  Recently a movie producer asked if he could include an excerpt of me preaching in a movie he was directing.  That was a first for me and it turned out really well and I am grateful for the opportunity to do this.  

I hope you are doing well.  Thanks for all the prayers and support you give to us here at DFEA.  God continues to open doors and we are grateful for the opportunity to serve Him and preach His Word here in Austin, TX and beyond.  Pray for me tonight as I preach at a men’s conference at North Richland Hills Baptist Church.  The Southern Baptists of TX asked if I would fill in and preach for Tommy Teague who went home to be with the Lord in June just a couple of months back when he was in Israel leading his people on a tour of the Holy Land.  He was a fine man of God who left a great legacy.

In these tough days of uncertainty in our nation and economy, remember the Lord reigns.  He is sovereign, and He wins!

Danny Forshee

1 Corinthians 2:9

Time seems to be moving at warp speed.  I always heard that these days would come, and I believe they are here!  God is blessing us and we are grateful.  Ashley and the kids are doing well and we are staying quite busy with family and ministry.  Hannah will attend the University Mary Hardin Baylor in the fall.  Bryant graduated this spring from high school and will enroll at Austin Community College in the fall.  He leaves for Springdale, AR next week to serve as an intern at the Cross Church, where Ronnie Floyd is the pastor and Keith Harmon the youth pastor.  Leighton finished up his junior year of high school, and is very involved with the Austin Tennis Academy and he is playing some great tennis.  He played in Houston last weekend and lost in the semis to a guy who is 6'7 tall.  The guy was taller than me (-:

God is moving in our church here at Great Hills in Austin.  I have been here almost a year as the senior pastor, and it has been a fast paced year for sure.  Our desire is to be a radiant church in Austin that makes disciples.  I get to serve with some wonderful men and women who are very serious about obeying the Great Commission.

Please pray for me as I prepare to go on two mission trips this summer.  I will go to Canada with our student ministry here at Great Hills.  Bryant and Leighton are going as well and that is exciting to me.  Also, I will go to Spain and another unnamed location to serve missionaries who are in very hard places.  I am most honored to go on this assignment, and do ask that you pray for our team please.

God continues to bless, open doors to preach, and provide for the DFEA.  Just recently Ashley and I have been corresponding with people in Kentucky and Pennsylvania.  We are grateful for the way the Lord uses our national TV broadcasts on DIREC TVand CDs.  As you know these are tough economic times and we need support like most ministries.  If God so lays this ministry on your heart please send us your financial contribution and please know we are most grateful.

Our annual DFEA Board Meeting is June 13 in Phoenix, AR during the annual SBC meeting.

Please let me know if I can pray for you or serve you.  God has allowed me to live for almost 47 years and I feel great.  If the Lord wills and tarries my desire is to keep preaching until He takes me home!

Danny Forshee

Philippians 4:13, 19

God is so good to us and continues to open doors to preach His Word. This spring has been busy, and next week I will go and speak at the chapel of our state convention here in TX, the SBTC.  We are so blessed to have Dr. Jim Richards as our executive director.  God is using him in great ways. Our convention leads the way in Cooperative Program support. We send 55% and keep only 45% in state.

This past Monday-Wednesday Ashley and i got to represent Great Hills baptist Church and attend the mega metro conference in Los Colinas TX and had a good time of fellowship with pastors from all over the SBC.  God is doing a great work and has raised up some wonderful leaders to lead us.  We heard from our new IMB chairman, Tom Eliff, NAMB president Kevin Ezell, and Executive Committee chairman Frank Page.  It is a great day for Southern Baptists. 

Like most churches and ministries in the USA, DFEA is encountering financial challenges.  Our ministry is dependent upon donations from God's people all over the country and with the tough economic times we are having nationwide, it is having a direct adverse effect upon us.  We are praying and trusting God.  If He wants us to continue our national broadcast then we know He will provide.  Please join us in praying that God would bless and we would not worry but trust in Him.

Let me know if I can pray for you.  God is moving in this world.  We are experiencing major difficulties worldwide with natural disasters and financial meltdowns.  Jesus is still on the throne and He is coming again to earth, and I look forward to that Day.  But until then, we have much work to do as we go to the nations and preach the gospel.

Danny Forshee

John 10:10