Weekly Encouragement
Good Wednesday Everyone,
Weekly blessings from your pastor. This last weekend was our community’s annual Calico Arts Festival. Happily, it was our second together and it was a great success. If you didn’t know Bethel Baptist had a booth in support of our children’s ministry. Several of our children worked shifts and helped in and out of the booth as we sold hanging and potted plants with drinks and boiled peanuts. They raised over $3,000 and sold 250 plants for their summer mission camps. Thank you all who came and supported our children. There will be other opportunities to bless our children and show your support as they grow in the Lord this Summer.
For your April calendar: Tonight, is our weekly Wednesday Night Fellowship dinner and Bible Study. The menu is tacos, so if you can bring whatever you like on a taco and/or a dessert. Then we continue in our Revelation Bible study. We will be in Revelation 7 and 8 this evening. It is never too late to join in the study of God’s Word. Then on the last Sunday of April, 04/30/23, will be our Fifth Sunday Fellowship. This is a wonderful time as most of our church family can eat and fellowship together. The weather should allow for the children to play outside. Please bring a dish to pass and stay for dinner immediately after the service in the fellowship hall.
As your pastor, I hope you learned biblically and grew spiritually from our recent sermon series “God’s Way is Believed Through God’s Church.” The sermon series focused on becoming the people God needs us to be and expand His kingdom on earth. The earth or the world? We hear Christ speak about both throughout His ministry. What is the world? We know, “God so loved the world.” The Bible refers to the world as the intense, hostile, and prevailing way of life people chose apart from God. The world is directly opposed to God’s people despite how it is packaged and presented. And God loves them!! We live in the world, but as Jesus said His followers are not “of” the world. (John 17:16)
The next Bethel Baptist sermon series will be a look into a man’s life who lived nearly 2,500 years ago. Despite the millennia’s gone past, his world was no different than ours. The man was Daniel of the Tribe of Judah. The book of Daniel is described as the Revelation of the Old Testament. Daniel lived in uncertain, unclear, and unrepentant times exactly as we do today. If anything, the world has become more intense, more hostile, and is in greater opposition against God’s people. Daniel, as a child of Almighty God will teach us how, not only to survive in the world but how to thrive in it.
How did Daniel do it? Daniel chose obedience even unto death over comfort and safety in the world. There was nothing easy about Daniel’s life, and he didn’t seek conflict. Daniel loved all things of God more than all the things of the world. Daniel was not prideful, rude, nor selfish – Daniel chose God over the world. The book of Daniel is a call to devotion, encouragement, and faith to the point of death, rather than allegiance with the world. Daniel refused to be trapped by the world.
Beloved, this is what will change the people who are trapped by the power of the world. People will be extremely curious when they see Christians willing to risk everything for what they believe. Daniel miraculously passed tests, thrived through adversity, and survived certain death, because he chose God. Daniel could have faked it, but he didn’t. Daniel could have gone along, but he didn’t. Daniel could have surrendered, but he didn’t. In the end the people of the world saw God through the life of Daniel, believed in Him, and glorified Him.
We cannot live with any less commitment in our time. It is tough, but God is our assurance. It is risky, but God is our protector. Tough and risky living is not foolish nor reckless living. Risk is saying, “No!” to the world and “Yes!!!” to God. When we do this God will either take us home to be with Him, or He will respond in such a way the world cannot deny He exists. Either way we win.
In the next few weeks, come and learn about the life of Daniel. What Daniel did, you can do. Each week I close with a repeated phrase, and it is intended for you to reach those close to you. “People really want what you have they just don’t know it yet!!” I love encouraging you with this statement, but I want you to ask yourself, “Do I have what Daniel had.” Daniel risked everything for God and God responded. Hope to see you this Lord’s Day.
In Christ Jesus,
Pastor Michael
