Weekly Encouragement
Good Wednesday Everyone,
Weekly blessings to all. Throughout March until Easter Sunday we celebrate the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. This great ministry deserves our support. By giving to Annie Armstrong, Bethel Baptist as a congregation is equipping those who share the gospel throughout North America. Give generously to this great ministry.
Tonight, we hope to see you at our Wednesday Night Fellowship. On the menu is Barbeque and this is a change from what we announced before. If you are able, bring a dish or a dessert to share. Wednesday is a tough day as we reach the week’s end. If you can join us on Wednesday evenings, we always share a great meal and warm fellowship. Fellowship is how God welds His people together.
We have just begun the video discipleship series “Experiencing God”. It is always a huge thing to experience God. This video series teaches us to be aware and to be ready to hear God’s voice. God never wants us to discount His continuous presence in our lives. God is callings you to advance His Kingdom, AND God is calling you to show others His Kingdom on this earth. This can be done by obeying God in seemingly simple things that will produce radical transformations in the lives of others. When you “feel” God telling you to call, speak to, text, or visit someone for no apparent reason, this small act on your part could find someone in their most desperate hour.
God knows what He is doing. God doesn’t make mistakes. And God always does BIG things through the lives of His saints. God always places you in the right place, at the right time, and with the right person. Be aware and be ready to follow where God leads.
Later this month on Saturday, March 23rd at 10:00am, Bethel Baptist will host our Easter Egg Hunt. If it rains, we will not cancel. We’ll move inside and the children will still have a great time. A snack will be served after the egg hunt. Bring someone and introduce them to Bethel Baptist. Then we conclude March with Palm Sunday on the 24th followed the next week by Easter Sunday service on the 31st.
We are approaching the end of our sermon series in the life of Job. When you read the middle chapters of Job, one can get lost in the repetitive narrative between Job and his friends. But right in the middle of the dialogue of Job claiming his innocence from sin, and Job’s friends insisting upon Job’s guilt, God speaks from the whirlwind. So, many times God speaks to us from His word, through the wise counsel of His saints, and from answered prayers. In reading these middle chapters of Job, you must wonder if God was waiting for Job to finish his defense, and for his friends to cease their counsel. It’s as if God said, “Are you all through? Can the King of all Creation speak now?” How many times God must have wanted to speak to Job. But Job wanted to prove he was right, and the others wanted to prove they were right. In the middle of all this God said from a whirlwind, “Enough!” And then, God Almighty spoke.
First, God spoke of His way, then God spoke the truth of His way. Next and finally, we will see the result of the one who combines God’s way and God’s truth by faith. They live. They come alive. Sunday we will see, really see the results of the life God intends for us. Of course we are glad for the way Job concludes. But there is a bigger picture painted from the life of Job for us to see. God is building a new Job. “The old Job has passed away; behold the new Job has come.” God knows what He is doing. God doesn’t make mistakes. And God always does BIG things through the lives of His saints.
As we close the Book of Job, we have heard God’s way, God’s truth, and we must be willing to accept God’s life. God gives Job way more than material and physical restoration. God gives Job spiritual restoration. God WILL do the same thing for you. No one can do what God can do. This is what you have and what others want, “They just don’t know it yet!” No one will learn God’s way on their own, no one will find His truth by trial and error, and no one will come alive without Jesus Christ. You know, Jesus is “The way, the truth, and the life.” And you know no one will go to the Father except through Him. Obey God in the small and in the simple things He tells you to do. Let God amaze you and watch God save others. Hope to see you this coming Sunday.
In Christ Jesus,
Pastor Michael
