The Hope of Jesus

“A man sentenced to death obtained a reprieve by assuring the king he would teach his majesty’s horse to fly within the year – on the condition that if he didn’t succeed, he would be put to death at the end of the year.  ‘Within a year,’ the man explained later, ‘the king may die, or I may die, or the horse may die.  Furthermore, in a year, who knows?  Maybe the horse will learn to fly.’” (Bernard M. Baruch)

There are many people in our world who put their hopes in things such as this man, things that may or may not happen.  Or perhaps even hoping in the impossible.  But the disciple of Christ does not hope in such a way or in such things. 

Hope in Jesus Christ is not fantasy or maybe or perhaps.  Hope in Jesus Christ is a certainty that he is the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and the only way to a life of joy, peace, and hope.  This Christmas season our hope is found only in Him.  Where all other things around us are fleeting and as easily caught as the wind, our Savior is the only true hope. 

Join us this week as we look into the hope that is found in Jesus.  May God’s Word speak to us, remind us, or even teach us for the first time what this true Hope looks like.

Thanksgiving in the Midst of Distraction

“There is a story involving Yogi Berra, the well-known catcher for the New York Yankees, and Hank Aaron, who at that time was the chief power hitter for the Milwaukee Braves.  The teams were playing in the World Series, and as usual Yogi was keeping up his ceaseless chatter, intended to pep up his teammates on the one hand, and distract the Milwaukee batters on the other.  As Aaron came to the plate, Yogi tried to distract him by saying, ‘Henry, you’re holding the bat wrong.  You’re supposed to hold it so you can read the trademark.’  Aaron didn’t say anything, but when the next pitch came he hit it into the left-field bleachers.  After rounding the bases and tagging up at home plate, Aaron looked at Yogi Berra and said, ‘I didn’t come up here to read.’” (Nehemiah, Learning to Lead, J.M. Boice, Revell, 1990, pg. 38)

As a disciple of Jesus Christ, distractions are everywhere and constant.  And this Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons the distractions are everywhere.  The world around us bombards us with covetousness, jealousy, wants instead of needs, and greed, to only name a few.  How are we to battle these distractions and give thanks to our great God?  What does a life of worship of the Lord look like?  What are the consequences of losing sight of the source of all we have and are?

Disciples of Christ are called to live a life of worship in all circumstances and our focus must be fixed and determined towards one goal.  Join us this week as we study God’s Word and discover His call of worship in our lives.

Church Values: Authentic Relationships

For anyone who has been on a first date empathy can be felt with this story.  I can remember the first date I had with my wife.  For some reason I felt the very large need to impress.  After all, I didn’t want her running away from me screaming, never wanting to see my face again.  So, throughout the date I asked her questions such as, “What’s your favorite color?” and “What music do you like to listen to?”  Later on in the date I drove her into the country to watch the sun set.  While the sun was going down I broke out the sparkling grape juice and asked her to dance with me to the music we had playing.  She said no, which wasn’t a good sign of things.

 

On the surface these types of things seem innocent enough because I was just trying to get to know her and her me.  But the problem was that I was trying to get to know this beautiful girl by scratching the surface.  And what seemed to me a way to impress her only scared her to death.  I barely knew her and I was asking her to dance.  Thankfully I learned my lesson and over the next number of months we began to get to know each other in a deeper way that wasn’t forced.

 

In my attempt to impress I lost sight of who I really was.  And one reason I was reluctant to be authentic with my future wife was that I was scared that if she saw who I really was she would never come around me again.  The mask I wore was not me.  It was what I wanted her to see.  And it certainly was not authentic.

 

We all desire authentic relationships, but what do these types of relationships look like and how do they come about?  Do we wear a “mask” with the intention of hiding our true selves?  It is our desire as God’s people to be a church that has authentic relationships with others so that disciples of Christ will be made.

 

Join us this week as we explore what God’s Word has to say about authentic relationships as a disciple of Jesus Christ.  May the Spirit reveal His truth to us and may we have the courage to be authentic to one another as His people so the glory of God can be seen by others.

 

By the way, after my wife and I were married it was normal for us to go out to watch the sun set and the stars come out while drinking sparkling grape juice.  And we have danced many times since.

Church Values: Spiritual Transformation

In 1984 and 1985 the toy of the year was Voltron and it was desired by every little boy I knew, including myself.  On Christmas Eve I opened a present and there it was before me.  The greatest toy ever created.  How could a toy that transformed five different cats into one giant robot not be the greatest?  As the years went by I began to collect new toys aptly named Transformers.  What do these toys do?  They transform from one thing into something completely different.

Over the past two weeks we have wrestled with and explored what God’s Word has to say about two of our values as a church: Honoring God and Reaching the Lost.  This week we will look at what God has to say about spiritual transformation.  And as the words describe, how is the disciple of Jesus Christ changed from one form into another form?  How does the Word of God describe this transformation?  What is it importance of knowing what this transformation looks like?  How does this transformation happen?  These are the questions that we will wrestle with this week.

Join us at First Baptist as we strive to understand God’s call for us to be spiritually transformed as His disciples and what this means for us as a whole as God’s people in this place.