Hi FBC Friends!
And he (Gideon) said to Him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” (Judges 6:15-16)
What a great promise from the Lord! I will be with you. I did a quick search and found many verses that say the exact same thing. And of course there are many other verses that say the same thing even if not in the exact same words. God promises to be with His people. No matter what the circumstance. No matter where the place. “I will be with you” is one of His most precious gifts to us! I like what the Gospel Transformation Bible says about this passage: “Our God willingly condescends to meet His servants because He understands our fear and frailty – qualities much more evident in Gideon than his heroism… In spite of Gideon’s objections, neither the presence of difficult circumstances nor the absence of God’s dramatic work should be taken as evidence that God has forsaken us. Neither does a flawed or weak family background impede our usefulness in advancing the kingdom of God.” Amen to that!
Here are some other great “I will be with you” passages if you want to look them up (and I suggest you do!) — Genesis 26:3; 31:3; Exodus 3:12; Deuteronomy 31:23; Joshua 1:5; 3:7; 1 Kings 11:38; Isaiah 43:2; Matthew 28:20 (slightly different wording – I am with you always…); John 7:33; Hebrews 13:5.
This Sunday I will be speaking on “The Ultimate Super Bowls” from Revelation 16. It is a very sobering passage. I’d encourage you to read it before Sunday. Obviously, these devastating judgments are not something any of us want to experience. We can be eternally grateful that those who are in Christ will not experience God’s wrath, as it was already place upon His Son Jesus Christ on the cross. But consider the people in your life whom you know, who have not yet trusted in Him for salvation. Pray that the Lord will use you as His instrument in bringing those people to faith in Christ. We don’t want anyone we know to experience these Super Bowls!
If you missed the note from this past Sunday’s bulletin about the All-church lunch and informational and Q & A meeting, here it is: “Everyone is invited to join us next Sunday, July 26, after the worship service. We will provide a simple lunch of sandwiches and salads. This is not a potluck. After lunch we will meet together as a large group for a time for the pastor and elders to share about the reasons for considering the addition of a new Associate Pastor of Youth & Family Ministries. A draft of the proposed job description will be available. Following the large group meeting we will break into four smaller groups for questions & answers and discussion. The reason for smaller groups is to encourage the participation of as many people as possible, as some people are very unlikely to share in a larger group. We will have detailed notes taken in each group. The meeting will conclude with another large group gathering to debrief and share what was discussed in each group. We hope to be completed with the entire process by 2:00pm. Please be sure to join us as we discuss this important and exciting step for our church family!”
Childcare will be available – if you will be staying for the meeting and have children that will be part of the child-care, please RSVP to Elizabeth at 541-979-1774 (call or text) or reply to this email.
So please consider joining us for this time sharing together as a church family. Please be in prayer about it as well. Thank you!
Thankful for a God who promises to be with us…
Love From Your Pastor,
Michael