Weekly Encouragement
Good Wednesday Everyone,
Blessings everyone. I pray the Lord has blessed you this week, and I pray you were a blessing to others. It’s the first week of February, and once we reach February the year seems to normalize. Remember several happenings with Bethel Baptist this week. Of course, tonight is our Wednesday Night Fellowship. Join us as we continue our study of Revelation, and Mission Friends for our children. We will serve a potato bar, and if you can bring anything fixings you like as others will surely like them too. Also, please bring any sides or desserts to share.
This Sunday Bethel Baptist’s children will host a Valentine’s Dinner (Beef tips/Rice/Salad/Dessert) in the fellowship hall immediately following the sermon. The cost is $8.00/person, and all monies will be used by the children’s ministry in the purchase of farm animal(s) for families where our global Christian missionaries serve. This is a wonderful application of Christian giving our children can see in action. You are welcome to give at the Valentine’s Dinner as the Lord leads with all gifts going to Bethel’s Children’s ministry. Tamara is our Mission Friends leader, and we always have excellent attendance. A testament to Tamara’s hard work. As the weather warms with more daylight, Bethel’s playground will be an exciting place for our children to fellowship and play outside.
As you have seen in the recent weeks our congregation is growing, and what a blessing and an encouragement. Remember – If we will do more, God will send us many. Our goal at Bethel Baptist is never numbers in pews, it is about souls in God’s house. At Bethel we are approaching an incredible challenge. We need more nursery workers, we need another Sunday School class, and we need more children’s ministry assistants. This is how and where you can serve the Lord. Pray about our needs at Bethel. Listen to what God is telling you about our needs. Obey what God is telling you towards meeting Bethel’s needs. God is always ahead of us, and He is constantly calling us to where He is. God knows there are three consistent truths about our congregation – Bethel serves; Bethel gives; and Bethel loves. God will use Bethel’s truths to draw people to Himself. What will Bethel look like this time next year?
We concluded the sermon series “Navigating Through Life” as we listened to the life and ministry of Nehemiah. God called Nehemiah to rebuild a battered and destroyed wall that once surround the great City of Jerusalem. This place was God’s city. God’s Temple was here. God’s presence was here. Today, we no longer rely on a protective wall as did the people of Nehemiah’s day. However, we all know and see people with terribly damaged walls surrounding their lives. This coming Lord’s Day, we will begin to examine what we can do, how we can rebuild, and how we can testify to what God has done for us. In the Gospel of Matthew, within the first few chapters we see a brilliant explanation of exactly who Jesus Christ is. This is the foundation of any and all of our rebuilding efforts. A lasting legacy for one’s life will only be built upon the life of Jesus Christ. We need to be able, and we need to be equipped in what to say about who Jesus Christ is. People all around us are confused on so many levels. People are intellectually confused. People are emotionally confused. And most importantly people are spiritually confused as to who Jesus Christ is. We must understand who Jesus Christ is with certainty and conviction so when we tell others, our words are exactly as the Bible explains Christ to be.
This coming Lord’s Day, think about someone you know who surely is a good person, but they are an uninformed person. Invite them to Bethel Baptist and to our Valentine’s Day dinner. People should at least be presented with the opportunity to not believe. Because, if we as a serving, giving, and loving people in Christ Jesus care enough and are kind enough to invite someone to church, they may just surprise us and accept our invitation. Then the Holy Spirit takes charge and will respond to our obedience. In our society, people live to be informed. Let them see what we have, let them hear what we say, and let the realize that they, “Really want what we have, they just don’t know it yet!” Join us this Lord’s Day.
In Christ Jesus,
Pastor Michael
