Weekly Encouragement
Good Wednesday Everyone,
Weekly blessings to all. What a great month for us this March. First, all this month until Easter Sunday we celebrate the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. Graciously give to this great ministry. Bethel Baptist’s congregation is a giving and loving church, and this offering is an excellent way to invest in Kingdom work. Then mark your calendars for Saturday, March 23rd at 10:00am for Bethel Baptist’s Easter Egg Hunt. Rain or shine we have a wonderful day scheduled for our children. This is a community event, and all are welcome. Then in the closing two Sunday of March we celebrate Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. This is one of the most well attended services and it should be. Not because of what will be preached, shared, or received, but because of what happened. There have been many, many self-proclaimed saviors throughout world history, all of them died, were buried, and you can visit their tombs. In Christianity, our Saviour died an earthly death, but He rose from the dead and His tomb is empty. Jesus Christ did not escape death, Jesus Christ defeated death through the power of His resurrection. On Easter Sunday we celebrate what no other faith can – We celebrate a living and a loving Saviour!!
This coming Lord’s Day is also special. Sunday, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Please pray about inviting someone who needs church. This month someone who is unfamiliar with church will SEE all what we believe with their own eyes, and it will begin this Sunday with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and conclude with Christ’s resurrection. Offer to drive together, arrive together, and enter church together. One thing we do as Christians is care for other people. We don’t make others do anything, but we do show them everything by the way we live. Move your clocks forward one hour the night before.
The sermon series of the life of Job is nearing conclusion, but not before God Almighty speaks. When God speaks, He speaks answers, convicts, comforts, and the most valuable of all He speaks TRUTH. Last week, God spoke His way. The way God works in all things is beyond our explanation and shatters our understanding. God’s way is incredible to follow and to trust. Therefore, it is equally incredible that most people refuse to accept God’s way, or arrogantly convince themselves that His way is one of many available and possible ways to follow and trust for worldly success.
This Lord’s Day we will hear the second part of what God communicates from the whirlwind. God communicates His way, and He also communicates his TRUTH. This is where and when the arrogant, the unfaithful, the unwise, and all unbelievers fumble the ball in life. God always tells the truth. God will never deceive, trick, nor lie to us. He can’t so He won’t!! Therefore, everything God says is truth. Most people never let God’s way and God’s truth impact their life until it’s too late. God’s way and God’s truth cannot be separated.
Consider the way and the truth associated with the law of gravity. The way and the truth of gravity holds no risk if you are sitting on the couch watching television. The way and the truth of gravity has your life in the palm of its hand if you are rock climbing on a cliff. If you fall off the couch it’s no big deal. You slip an inch, misstep once, or let go of the rope – You die. The law of gravity, like God’s way and God’s truth cannot be separated, nor partially believed.
Job is finally, through God’s allowed suffering, combining God’s way and God’s truth in his life. We have to do the same. We must stop trying to separate them. Ultimately, every one of us, and every one of the people we love will find themselves stuck on the cliff, unable to move up or down, clinging to the cliff with nowhere to go and with no help coming. God’s way led you to the life altering situation – The cliff. God is with you. God’s truth, the law of gravity, is real – The fall. This is the moment!! Most people refuse to believe in the truth of gravity. They say, “Gravity isn’t real.” Or, “Gravity doesn’t exist.” Perhaps, “I believe I can float gently to the ground, because this is my truth.” Every person wants to know the way and the truth of God. Everybody wants to LIVE, really and truly LIVE, “They just don’t know it yet!” Every Christian has trusted God’s way and God’s truth and allowed Him to take them safely off the cliff. The bottom line to God’s way and His truth is LIFE. Everyone wants to LIVE. Only the Christian can live the “abundant” life!! See you this Sunday. Come and hear what God has to say.
In Christ Jesus,
Pastor Michael
