Weekly Encouragement
Good Wednesday Everyone,
We have reached the middle of another week. As always, tonight is our Wednesday Night Fellowship. The menu is ham and we will also have cheese pizza (not just for the kids), so help where you can with a side or a dessert to share. Our fellowship meal will be followed by our adult and children’s bible study time. As this is the first Wednesday of the quarter, we must present the import business and events at Bethel Baptist for you to be aware. You should want to know what is happening at Bethel Baptist: Come with questions, ideas, and visions for our future. This time on every Wednesday is always prayer focused to ask for intercession by the saints, and to report praises to Bethel’s faithful.
We have just begun our Wednesday night study in Revelation. Come join us as we will look deeply into the upcoming events of our age. Are we at the beginning? Are we living in the middle? Or have we reached the end of mankind’s hours on earth? It makes no difference for God’s children – We live with no fear as Christians. Christ will either come for us before we die, or He will bring us to Himself when we die. Let us say as did the Apostle John when he concluded God’s Revelation, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
Your pastor is always excited and expectant with a new sermon series. The excitement is for something new to study, prepare, and deliver from God’s Word. The expectancy is for what God will do in each of us. We will look into the specific calling upon the life of Nehemiah. While a Jewish man in a pagan world, deeply committed and involved in a career, making a difference in his profession, and applying his gifts and skills, God called Nehemiah to something radically different. God called Nehemiah to complete a physical calling. A blood, sweat, and tears calling which was totally outside what Nehemiah did for a living. Nehemiah’s resume read, “Nehemiah – Cupbearer to the King Artaxerxes”. Now, it would read, “Nehemiah – Builder of Walls for the King of Kings”. There’s a big difference.
Nehemiah was in a place where we all should seek to be. Nehemiah lived his life at the point where his career and his calling intersected. This is God’s plan for every one of us. We all do things to pay the bills. Been there! But God intends for all of us to LIVE at the intersection of our calling and our career. This is abundant living!! When we do, we are able to see what God has planned for us. What God plans for us to DO is help, lift-up, restore, and rebuild the lives of other people. Once God has you where He wants you, then you are free to do His will. It is God’s will His children LIVE to help others.
As we seek the place where our careers and our callings intersect, let’s see what Nehemiah did. This Lord’s Day we saw how Nehemiah PRAYED. Read Nehemiah’s prayer and see how it perfectly follows the Lord’s prayer. This coming Lord’s Day is the next necessary step in living at the intersection of our calling and our career. It is persistence. The enemy will hurl everything at you to move you out of your perfect place with God. All the stuff around where God has you will not be perfect, put the place where God has you is perfect. You must persist to remain where you are.
You cannot persist alone for long. You need the help of others of same commitment, the same faith, and with the same understanding. This place is God’s church. You will find all the encouragement, the energy, and the recourses at God’s church. Bethel Baptist is such a place for all people who are seeking the point of where their calling and their careers intersect. If you know someone who needs what we offer and promote for their lives invite them to Bethel Baptist. If you are the person seeking this point in life, come see us at Bethel Baptist. Everyone is seeking truth and truth is what God offers abundantly. At Bethel Baptist we aren’t perfect, but we do have perfect truth, and “people really want what we have, they just don’t know it yet.” Bring someone with you this Lord’s Day.
In Christ Jesus,
Pastor Michael
