Love From Your Pastor

Hi FBC Friends!

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! (2 Timothy 2:8-9 ESV)
I am so thankful that the word of God is not bound!  Nothing can stop it.  It’s power is relentless.  That’s why we preach it.  We teach it.  We memorize it.  We study it.  His Word is the foundation of all we do, which is why we symbolically placed Bibles in the foundation at the four corners of the new classroom building, almost a year and a half ago now!  I recently saw the picture on my computer as it appeared as part of our screen saver photo slide show.  It was a great reminder of why we do what we do!  We had another reminder about why we do what we do on Thursday nights in our reading this morning:
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15 ESV)
This of course is the Awana theme verse (Approved Workers Are Not Ashamed).  What a blessing to instill God’s Word in the hearts of boys and girls every week!  But speaking of workers, we are in a great need of some more adults to come and help out!  We are often short of people to simply listen to the kids say their verses.  We’d love to have your help!  Obviously, you have to complete our Child Safety screening process.  If you have the paperwork but haven’t completed it yet, let this be your admonishment from your pastor.  “Get ‘er done!”  We need you.  If you haven’t started the process, but would like to, speak to an Awana leader or myself, and we can direct you to the people that can help get you started.  We have a thorough process because we deeply care about the safety of our children!  But please pray about this opportunity to serve the Lord, either on Thursday nights with the children, or on Sunday nights with the teens.
Trunk or Treat (8 days away!) – Elizabeth plans on a brief meeting after church today for everyone participating in Trunk or Treat on Oct. 31.  And she asked me to pass along this info to you today:  We would like people to sign up to bring cookies (we need 40 dozen) and condiments for hot dogs (ketchup, mustard, relish).  She will have a sign up sheet on Sunday.  And of course we need more candy!!!  We have about 275 lbs. so far, our goal was 500, but we really at least need to have 400.  The Team Elizabeth vs. Team Michael competition is close, so keep voting via more lbs. of candy! And we are looking for at least 5 more vehicles. Please pray for good weather.  Pray for a great turnout of kids/families from our community.  Pray for the people who come to experience the love of Christ while they are on our property.  Pray for them to respond to the invitations they will receive to come to FBC and Awana.
Revelation: Unveiled!  This Sunday we will look at the first of 7 messages to the churches.  Please read Rev. 2:1-7 and ask the Lord to speak to our congregation.  The most well-known part of the message to the church at Ephesus is the problem of their loss of the love they had at first.  Consider just how critical love is to any church.  Both love for the Lord, and love for one another, are vitally important!  I think Jesus has much to say about that!
Spasenie: Don’t forget the concert with the worship music by this team from Belarus.  One of our missionaries, Tim Watson will be here with them to introduce their ministry to us.  There will be a freewill love offering received to help with some of the expenses of the team’s travel in the U.S.
On a personal note, thank you for your prayers for Molly, who turned 16 today, and for Emily, who had a tooth pulled (she handled it like a champ!).
Thankful that the word of God is not bound!
Love From Your Pastor,
Michael