Love From Your Pastor

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. (Romans 16:20)

Since the promise in Genesis 3, God’s people have been waiting for the final crushing blow to be delivered to Satan.  I believe the victory was won at the cross, so he is already a defeated foe!  Yet he is still prowling about, doing his damage.  The end of Revelation will show us his final defeat when he is thrown into the lake of fire to be tormented forever and ever (20:10).  How we long for that day!  Romans agrees with Revelation that the day is coming “soon.”  Amen!
This Sunday we will begin to see God’s judgments unfold.  I will be preaching on Revelation 6:1-17, “The Wrath of the Lamb.”  Please read it prayerfully beforehand.  If you’re a football fan, you may have heard of “The Four Horsemen”, of Notre Dame fame from the early 1920s.  What do these four horsemen in Rev. 6 represent?  Come Sunday!
Church family, I want to apologize to you.  As most of you are aware, Jeff Moritz and his family will be here for a number of events this weekend.  If you are a member or regular attender you were supposed to get a letter last week explaing the itinerary and describing the partnership the elders and I have been considering with Jeff.  Although I have been in discussions with him and with the elders for months about this, it has been pointed out to me that I did not do a good job of communicating about this to the congregation.  I am truly sorry for that.  It is not our desire to push anything through without everyone being on board (as much as possible).  So this has come across to some as being a surprise or thrust upon the church too quickly.  I want to tell you that bringing Jeff on board to help with our ministry to youth, young adults, and families is not a “done deal.”  We are not voting on anything this weekend.  We would just like to give you the opportunity to interact with him a bit and perhaps ask questions.  We wanted some of the young people to have some exposure to him also.  Again, I am sorry for how this has come across.
We do have a passion for ministering effectively to the next generation.  Just as Awana has been a tremendous tool to come alongside parents in helping them train up their children spiritually, we envision a ministry to youth and families that does the same.  We feel there is an area of weakness in our ministry to families, and that is in the area of teens and young adults.  Don’t get me wrong.  We are so grateful for those dedicated and faithful volunteers who have been ministering to our young people.  But we see a need and sense an opportunity to enhance this ministry, and that is what we are trying to address.  The proposal with Jeff is a possible way for us to get started on a part-time basis, with the hopes of some day being able to increase the staffing commitment in this area, whether that’s with Jeff or someone else.  No doubt this would come with challenges, and we are aware of that.  But anything worthwhile comes with challenges, and we believe this is worthwhile.
So I hope you’ll have the chance to interact with Jeff at some point this weekend.  He will be here at the church for a rather informal time of pizza and fellowship from 5:00-6:30 tonight.  You can come and go as you please (you don’t have to stay the whole time).  He will speak at our men’s breakfast tomorrow morning at 7am.  He will do Sunday School with the youth and young adults in the fellowship hall at 9am Sunday.  He and his brother Jeremy will be helping to lead in worship Sunday morning.  He will be here for our potluck after the service on Sunday.  And he will joing the Teen Group Sunday night at 5:30pm.
I also want to thank the many of you who expressed kind wishes for Elizabeth and me for our 20th anniversary!  We so appreciate the love you continually show us.  We’re thankful the Lord has us here in Brownsville to share life with you!
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”
Love From Your Pastor,
Michael