Weekly Encouragement
Good Wednesday Everyone,
I hope everyone is having a blessed mid-week. Don’t forget tonight is Wednesday Night Fellowship – Bring your favorite soup and whatever goes with it. Wednesday nights are quickly becoming special at Bethel so don’t miss the blessing. As our Christmas calendars are filling up make sure to prioritize our upcoming events. The Bethel Baptist’s children program is the evening of December 18th at 6:00pm, during the Christmas vacation week we have a “Happy Birthday Jesus” party for the children (TBA), and Christmas is on Sunday this year. The Christmas Shoe Boxes are ready for delivery and Bethel lovingly filled 55 shoe boxes for this critically important ministry. Thank you, Bethel ladies, for all your hard work. The Samaritan’s Purse ministry is critically important every Christmas season not only because it provides a desperate child a Christmas package, but the children open an eternal gift – The gift of kindness. Kindness is never forgotten. The children of Samaritan’s Purse will receive the gift of Christian kindness amid their difficult and undeserved circumstances. Thank you, Bethel. Let’s pack twice as many next year.
We have begun a new sermon series and have ventured back into the New Testament. Bethel is looking deeply into the Apostle Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians. This Lord’s Day we were challenged to read Paul’s epistle as if it was written to us. The truth is it was. We struggle with worldliness today just a much as any community, anywhere has in the past. We need direction, encouragement, and instruction. Quite frankly, the moment we have everything figured out at Bethel Baptist, within our families, and within our own hearts we can stop reading the Bible. But we can’t and this gives us all the more reason to read about God’s mercy and grace in His Word. One of the strongest analogies of the Bible is this – The Bible is a compass. A compass is a small, necessary, and an unarguable tool we must HAVE and USE when we are lost. When we are lost nothing else matters but our compass. The compass is how we find food, family, warmth, unity, and it is the WAY home. The Bible is the Christians compass and we cannot navigate life without one.
Like a compass, Paul was pointing the churches and Christians closer to God. The recipients of Paul’s letters cherished them, copied them, studied them, and shared them. The overriding theme in all Paul’s letters to the churches was the power found in Christianity. Power is required to receive faith, hope, and love, and the same power is required to share faith, hope, and love with others. And Paul told us the greatest of these is love.
Paul will tell us how to receive God’s power and it is found only within the process of daily Christian living. This Lord’s Day and throughout this sermon series we will learn the process of Christianity. The first step is salvation. Isn’t that good news? In Christianity, salvation is the first step not the last. Doesn’t someone have to improve first? Shouldn’t someone have to study first? Wouldn’t someone have to sacrifice something first? This is God’s power in Christianity, God was powerful enough to do all those things first, for us. Then throughout the process we will do all those things and more because we possess God’s power to change our lives and glorify Him.
Bethel, please consider this fact. There are people all around us who have no idea what we are taking about. We have all entered the “Holiday” season. There are people who can only equate Christmas with gifts. They cannot separate Christmas from gift giving, and they don’t know how to fit Christ into Christmas. Christ in Christmas is sadly not obvious, but what do we expect of people who don’t know how to use a compass.
Bethel, those around you are watching you, and they are following you. Lead them to church. Lead them to God. This is not an issue of pressure; It is a position of loving privilege, and it is the reality of power. You have access to the power to change a person’s life and a family’s priorities. Bethel, the Christian Process is an incredibly powerful force in your life, and others all around you see it, and “They really want what you have – They just don’t know it yet.” Give them the opportunity to find out what they are missing. Invite others to Bethel Baptist Church this Christmas season and let God do everything else.
Blessings in Christ Jesus,
Pastor Michael
