Weekly Encouragement
Good Wednesday Everyone,
Blessings from your pastor. The week is full and so much is happening at the parsonage. Our daughter Jacquelynn and husband Chris are visiting along our two granddaughters. It has been a wonderful week and they all are such a joy. Bethel’s parsonage is experiencing late night feedings, eating with hands, always empty sippy cups, diaper changes five minutes after a previous diaper change, and bubble baths with Ping-Pong balls. A completely normal week!! Now, it’s Wednesday. As always, we will see you this evening. The menu IS fried chicken. Our congregation will not disappoint with the sides and desserts to share. The youth and adults will explore Christ’s message to the Christian church at Philadelphia, and our children will meet for Mission Friends. What a wonderful group of children we have had in recent weeks. The noise of children is proof of vitality for Bethel Baptist. The more children, the more of everything.
Also, what a blessed Lord’s Day we will share this coming week. We will baptize two of Bethel’s own after their public professions of faith in Christ Jesus. Do not miss this Sunday. Then, make sure to be at Bethel Baptist on March 12th as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. Whenever you are away from Bethel Baptist you are always missed, but you are never forgotten.
These weekly encouragements come in the middle of two Lord’s Days. As pastor, I have the opportunity to both follow-up and look forward within the current sermon series. This sermon series is approached from the perspective of where “my” place within Bethel Baptist’s mission. The first two sermons challenged us to address who Jesus Christ is and what Jesus Christ does. Now, as a congregation we must possess the unique characteristics to help, love, tell, teach, and welcome others to hear these truths about Jesus Christ. What kind of heart must Bethel Baptist have for the people God will send to us?
The Apostle Paul wrote a brief yet powerful letter of encouragement to Pastor Titus and the churches of the Island of Crete. Paul instructed Titus to conduct a “Heart Check” of the island’s congregations. Our heart must seek God’s heart. This week James, the earthly brother of our Lord Jesus, will tell our congregation must be one with “Open Arms”. Our hearts must open our arms. What does this mean? James will teach us only as James can - Directly. James will tell us to do some things, and not do some things.
James was the pastor of the Jerusalem Christian Church. Jerusalem for first century Christians was the beacon of Christian persecution. Here’s why. The majority of the Jerusalem’s Christians were Jews, living in the centuries old and the originally established Jewish City of God, full of ancestral Jews who could trace their linage to the first created man (Adam). These original Jews despised the converted Jews. The Christian Jews, led by James were considered apostates, heretics, sell-outs, and traitors to the Law of Moses. Think about living, shopping, and walking amid this conflict every day: two groups of people who believed in the same God, gave to the same God, prayed to the same God, lived for the same God, surrendered their lives to the same God, and worshiped the same God. But each believed the other was completely WRONG about their same God. What do you say to each other? How do you understand each other? Where is the middle ground with each other? Bethel, we are talking about faith here, not politics. Coming together in politics in nothing in comparison to coming together in faith!!!!!!!!!
We do not face any such difficulties with those surrounding Bethel Baptist, and Fort Deposit. But we do need to ensure we are a church with open arms for those God sends to our doors. I know we have been in the past, and I know we will always be in the future. James will help us do it better.
Prepare for this coming Lord’s Day by reading, meditating, and even memorizing our sermon series Scripture 1 Timothy 2:1-6. As the Lord moves Bethel Baptist forward, we MUST care about others, we MUST give to others, and we MUST believe that other people want what we have – They just don’t know it yet!” Please join us and bring someone with you this Sunday.
In Christ Jesus,
Pastor Michael
