New Year's Disciplines

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Are you like me and sometimes you look in the mirror and wonder what happened to you?  A few weeks ago I looked in the mirror and thought to myself, “WOW, have you gotten fat?!”  I was so disgusted with myself.  I made the decision it was time to do something about it.  The thought went through my mind for me to wait until after the new year to start a new diet or change my eating habits.  But upon further examination, I decided NOW was the time.  It has been difficult, but I have lost 20 pounds since Thanksgiving.  I have had to say “no” to steak at the Deacons’ Christmas party, to Mexican food at the staff party, and to the fudge and divinity . . . and on and on and on.  Yet, it has been worth it.  It definitely has not been easy, but with discipline and prayer I have made it!  I found myself at times thinking I could just have a little of this or a bite of that.  It would not hurt me.  I knew it would, so I made a commitment and have stuck to it!

I challenge you this coming year in a couple of areas.  I challenge you to spend time in God’s Word every day for a year.  I challenge you to pray every day.  I challenge you to make Sunday School, discipleship, worship and ministry a priority in the year to come!  I know there will be excuses and days that you want to “cheat” a little.  Let me encourage you to be disciplined and to make a decision that you want to be better for the Kingdom this year!  There will be times that something “looks” better, but stay on task, stay focused and be committed this coming year.

On a bit of a lighter note, I simply want to say thank you for being a loving and caring church family.  Over the past ten years you have accepted my family and me and loved us as a part of your family.  That is what we too consider all of you — our family.  Through the holiday season’s cards, gifts, and special worship times, you have shown us how much you care and we greatly appreciate and love you all! 

This has been a wonderful year for First Baptist and I fully believe it is only a foundation to what is to come.  Will you be disciplined and committed in 2009?  Take a look in your spiritual mirror and see what it is God wants to do in your life!  I pray you will. 

Happy New Year!

Word of the Week for December 21st

One of my favorite movies of all times is Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase. Well, today you can call me Chevy . . . the whole family has loaded up and as you read this, we should be entering New Mexico and lots of snow! I am excited about snow skiing the next several days and spending the Christmas holiday with my family. I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and pray you are happy and healthy. We will see you on the 28th for a combined worship service!

Don’t forget about the Candlelight Lord’s Supper Worship on Christmas Eve. Daniel will be leading the service, so I know you won’t want to miss out.

Merry Christmas,

Word of the Week for December 14th

There is nothing better than a family gathering! That is one of my favorite parts about the holiday season. It is such a joy to watch all the children getting together and playing and enjoying one another and to join in with adults to play games and watch football on television. It just doesn’t get any better than that!

Tonight we will have a family get together for the holidays. As a staff we are so privileged to serve alongside this church family and we want to say thank you for that opportunity. We will be serving turkey, ham, dressing, green beans, cranberries, rolls and dessert in your honor. We all hope you will join us, as we have our church family get together and enjoy the holiday season.

Hope to see you tonight!

Word of the Week for December 7th

Are you in the Christmas spirit yet? After yesterday’s Ladies Christmas Tea, I am officially ready for Christmas. What a beautiful the day it was. As you walked into the Fellowship Hall, it was filled with the beauty of fine china and spectacularly decorated tables. The fellowship was great and the food was wonderful.

As I thought about how the tea unfolded, I also realized how it was a beautiful picture of the church. It was people working together to pull off a large event. The men were serving with joyful hearts. In many cases people invited friends of theirs to come and be a part of something really special. A huge thank you to everyone who made the tea a success!

Let us use this great picture of the church experience to remember how we must always be working together, serving one another, and extending invitations for others to become a part of the Kingdom of God.

Don’t forget about the Hanging of the Greens Service tonight and the fellowship to follow. If you are not in the Christmas spirit yet, I believe this will help!

Merry Christmas!

Glad to Move On!!!!

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Many things have happened, since I wrote my last newsletter article. The most significant of those is the election of a new president for our country. I am glad we elect our government officials in November for the fact that it gives us the opportunity to move on to better things following the election cycle. After many hours of political ads on television, we are now hammered with holiday ads and things we MUST have for Christmas!!!!

After some discussion with my family, we came to the conclusion we all have way more than we need, so we decided family time together was more important than gifts this year. Therefore we voted to spend a week together in the snow in New Mexico, but there are still some things I want this year.

The first thing I would like is for our church to continue to grow spiritually. I want us all to continue to develop our relationship with Christ in such a way that the world around us will notice something different in us. This is a gift that comes at a great cost (a large price tag), because we may have to give up some things in our everyday life we enjoy. Do you want the same thing?

The second item on my want list is for our church to continue to look outside of our walls for ways we can better minister to our community and to the world! We have made some incredible strides in this area in the past few years, but we have so much more to do. I want us to become a missional church in a sense that we think of others before ourselves. Again, this carries a big price tag . . . it is much easier to shop for ourselves than for others!!!

The third thing I want is for our church to spend more time in the Word of God. If we are going to be a church capable of all the things God wants us to be, we need to be using our instruction manual much more often. We have a lot of features we are not using in our church body, because we are unaware they are available to us. We must be more committed to spending time in the Word. Remember we are going to be reading through the Bible as a church next year, so if you have not already called the church office to get your name on the list for a Bible, make sure you do so quickly. We will be ordering soon.

We have so much to be thankful for when it comes to our church family. As we transition from a time of thanksgiving into the spirit of Christmas, I hope we don’t miss out on any opportunities to share the love of Christ with those around us this season.

May you all have a blessed Christmas season!