First Baptist Church of Brownsville, Oregon

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. (Psalm 136:1)

I love Psalm 136!  It will be the basis of my message tomorrow at Wade Doerfler’s memorial service.  It is taking place at 1pm at Central Linn High School.  Everyone is invited of course.  Thank you so much to everyone who has helped provide cookies for the reception after the service – I know the family is grateful!  Please be in prayer for comfort for the family, especially our sister Marianne, and for the gospel seeds to be planted well in the hearts of any unbelievers attending tomorrow.

This Sunday I am beginning a new four-part series: The Chronicles of Prayer.  We will look at the prayers/songs of David and Solomon in 1 & 2 Chronicles.  This Sunday’s message will be, “Oh Give Thanks to the LORD” from 1 Chronicles 16:8-36.  It has often frustrated me that in our culture we practically skip right over Thanksgiving, as we are so anxious to get to Christmas!  Let’s take a few weeks to focus on giving the Lord the thanks He deserves and learning to pray from the beautiful prayers & songs of these two kings.

Did you know Monday the 16th is FBC of Brownsville’s 162nd Anniversary?  Just one more thing to thank God for!  He has been so faithful to this congregation for so many years!

As one way to celebrate our church anniversary, we are once again receiving a special offering for Missions during the worship service this Sunday.  Our Global Outreach Commission has chosen these three projects for our special gifts:  1) Teen Challenge, in Shedd, has had a huge impact on the local area.  Teen Challenge helps out those who are struggling with addictions to substances of various kinds.  2) Haiti Foundation of Hope, raising funds to build a new cafeteria to efficiently feed the 1,000 children at the school.  3) Syrian & Iraqi Refugees in Turkey, being served by Frontiers & World Horizons.  Let’s pray and consider generous gifts, as the Lord has been so generous to us.

(This is a separate offering from the regular General Fund offering for this Sunday.)

Also, remember our Christian Adventurers (for those 55+) is having their Thanksgiving Potluck on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at Noon in the Fellowship Hall of FBC.  Guests Carolyn Jackson and Roger Ruckert will be sharing about agriculture in the classroom and agriculture on our table from an educator’s and a producer’s point of view.  Ham, turkey, and rolls will be provided, just be ready to share your best seasonal side dish, salad, or dessert.

Love From Your Pastor,

Michael

I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.(Philemon 4-6)

Philemon is a short but powerful New Testament letter.  “Philemon teaches us simply yet profoundly that the gospel transforms us from the inside out.  God’s grace in the gospel therefore has the power to reconcile people and transform relationships… Because of Jesus, the ultimate reconciler who made peace on the cross (Col. 1:20), we must let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts in all of our relationships, since we are one body with Christ who is our head (Col. 3:15).” (“Introduction to Philemon,” The Gospel Transformation Bible)  It was interesting to me that this was in my reading today, on the same day that one of my Psalms readings included Ps. 133:1 — Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!  “The unity of God’s people has been, and continues to be, a sign of God’s rich blessing.  Here the psalmist reflects on those who are bound together in the worship of Yahweh at the temple, and he revels in their union in faith and practice as the true people of God… As believers on this side of the cross, our minds are naturally brought to the unity we have in Christ (e.g., John 17:21-23).  The basis for our unity is even greater now that the fulfillment of those priestly laws has come, and the true Mediator of God’s people with their heavenly Father intercedes for us.  If there was beauty in the unity of God’s people at the temple, how much more is the glory of our union shown as we, in Christ, display our devotion and love for Him” (notes on Ps. 133, The Gospel Transformation Bible).

I personally found those passages and the notes that went with them to be both encouraging and convicting.  I am encouraged by the hope that the gospel of Jesus Christ gives us that we can be not only reconciled to God, but brothers and sisters can be reconciled to each other.  I am convicted because I have not always done everything in my power to pursue peace and unity with everyone.  This Sunday Randy Waldie will be preaching on “Unity Among Believers”, which is one reason I was especially interested in what I read this morning.  I’m sure Randy will have a powerful message for us Sunday.

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Don’t forget to set your clocks back one hour tonight!  Daylight Savings ends (or is it begins? I forget), so we “fall back”.  So thankfully, we get an extra hour of rest tonight!

It’s only a few hours until Trunk or Treat now.  Thank you all of you who are praying for this event.  May we shine the light of Jesus to our community.  Decorating is in high gear, bags for families have been stuffed with a gospel tract, church info, and of course candy.  Costumes are being prepared.  Let’s pray for hearts to be prepared.  I was out at Central Linn Elementary’s Carnival today, and overheard people who I don’t know talking about our trunk or treat and telling people how to get to our church!  I know this is a blessing for the families in our area.  Thank you for your generous giving, your participation, and your faithful prayers.  Any last minute questions, call Elizabeth or me.

Also, since you have an extra hour tonight, you can spend some time looking at our text for tomorrow’s sermon – 2 Timothy 4:1-8.  Three reasons I chose this text for tomorrow: 1) We finished Revelation last Sunday!  2) It is one of the passages in the Daily Reading Bible tomorrow.  3) Tomorrow is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.  Persecution of Christians is starting to heat up here in America.  We need to be praying.  But persecution of brothers and sisters in Christ has been happening around the world in full gear.  We need to pray for God’s strength, for His glory to be made known, and for our hearts to be strengthened for the days to come.  This passage of Scripture is a great reminder from the apostle Paul about the need for us to be prepared to endure suffering for the gospel of Christ.

Tomorrow is also Communion Sunday, so please be preparing your hearts for our remembrance of the Lord’s sacrifice for us.

I love you and look forward to seeing you tonight and/or tomorrow!

Love From Your Pastor,

Michael

Michael, To the church of the Brownsvilleians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.  We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (adapted from 1 Thessalonians 1:1-3)

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:19)

…yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (1 Corinthians 8:6)

Wow!  We just don’t start letters like that anymore.  We started reading 1 Corinthians in our daily reading today, and the way Paul starts the letter got my attention.  Even though we find out later in his letter that the church in Corinth had a lot of problems, he reminds them from the very beginning of who he is as God’s servant, who they are in Christ, and what the Lord has provided to them by His grace.  While we want to guard against sounding too “super-spiritual” or overly pious, I wonder if we would benefit from more of such reminders in our communication with one another in the body of Christ.  Just a thought!

This Sunday, we will be in Revelation 18, “Babylon the Fallen.”  After this chapter we will really turn a corner in our Revelation study.  Our hopes for Christ’s return and the kingdom of God to come in all its glory, will soon be revealed.  But we need to see the fulfillment of prophecy regarding the downfall of Babylon.  I again encourage you to read Rev. 18 before we meet together on Sunday.  I also intend to share a number of cross-references from Jeremiah 50 and 51, so if you want to do a little extra in preparation for the sermon, you may want to read those chapters as well (those using the Bible reading plan read those on Aug. 21-22, but if you’re like me, it doesn’t take long to forget what we read!).  In the midst of the report of Babylon’s destruction, there is an interesting command in verse 4.  See if you can understand what the readers of Revelation are being told to do, and how it might relate to us as Christians as described in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.

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Hello brothers and sisters of FBC!

Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! (Psalm 27:7)

There was a little theme that stood out to me in my Bible reading today — the theme of “hearing.”

(A side note: a number of you are joining me in using the “M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan” for 2015.  A few of us are reading out of the “ESV Daily Reading Bible” and the rest are using the printed out sheets that we supplied in the foyer.  The readings should have been the same in both formats, but I discovered this week that for some reason the one I’m reading has us in Psalms, while the printed out list has you in Luke instead.  So sorry about the difference – maybe we’ll get back on all the same readings in the months ahead.)

In Romans 10 Paul reminds us of the essential matter of the gospel being preached, so that people can hear the message, so that they might believe and be saved.  I’ve loved verse 17 for a long time.  It reminds me that what people around me need is not any fancy argument or well-worded presentation.  They need the word of Christ!  Hearing the word of Christ is what is absolutely critical for someone to come to faith.

In Psalm 27, David is asking the Lord to hear him as he cries out in prayer.  You will see this kind of request all throughout the Psalms (and many other passages as well).  One of the great blessings of our relationship with the Lord is knowing that when we pray to Him, he hears us!  He listens!  And He acts!

These two ideas together emphasize something very important for each of us: our faith is not simply some dogma, or some set of religious practices.  No, Christianity is about a real relationship with a real God who really loves us.  We can communicate with Him.  We hear Him, with faith, through His Word.  He hears us, by grace, when we pray.  What a beautiful thing!

It was a blessing to spend some time away with my family.  Thank you for your prayers for us.  I am grateful for the ministry of Bob Reister, Ryan, and Bruce Tissell as they shared the Word with you.  But it is also a blessing to be back here, and I’m excited to see you this weekend!

This Sunday we will jump back into Revelation!  We will be in Revelation 17, discussing “Babylon the Great”.  This is a challenging passage!  But please read it prayerfully before Sunday and let’s ask God to communicate to us what He wants us to hear.

A few other things of note…

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