Hello FBC Friends!
Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6-7, ESV)
Notice the action words in the above verses: Seek, call upon Him, forsake, return. That is our responsibility. What is the Lord’s response to such actions? He will have compassion, and He will abundantly pardon. Let’s be sure that we are doing our part, and trust Him to do His! I like what Dallas Willard says a number of times in his book, The Great Omission: “Grace is opposed to earning, but grace is not opposed to effort.” Yes, we have been saved by grace; we cannot earn it. But the Lord calls us to put for the effort necessary to grow in our Christian life. That’s what we’ll be looking at for the next few months in my new sermon series: SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES: Training for Holiness.
In preparation for Sunday, let me encourage you to spend some time meditating on 1 Timothy 4:7-8. That passage is essentially the theme of the whole series. Chew on it for awhile and think about the importance of the phrase “train yourself for godliness.” Why are we to do that? How are we to do that? We’ll begin looking at that Sunday morning. Looking forward to seeing you here!
A few other important items:
4 DAYS OF PRAYER: August is gone and now September is here and all the great ministries of FBC will be starting up. We believe here at FBC that unless God blesses us as a church nothing we do will amount to much. A major condition for God’s blessing is prayer. We are going to have a “Four Day Prayer Event”, September 9th through the 12th and we will be praying each of those days from 5 to 9 am and 5 to 9 pm (Thursday will be 5 to 9 am only). Our flesh hates to pray. The devil hates us to pray and will work hard at talking us into not praying. Our schedules are super busy and keep us from praying. The only way to overcome these enemies of prayer in us is to make a commitment before the event and then be faithful to keep it. Make a commitment today, write it down, read it often, share it with somebody and then do it and be blessed and be a reason God blesses FBC. This prayer event is to pray for our ministries that will be starting up, people in our lives that need the Lord, and the timely completion of our classroom addition.
RIVER CRUISE: The Christian Adventurers (55+) are going to be cruising on the Willamette River in Salem on Thursday, Sept. 19, on the Willamette Queen, the sternwheeler riverboat. All the details were in the bulletin last Sunday, and are posted in the foyer at the church. The important thing I need to mention is that if you plan to go, and haven’t signed up yet, we need to know soon! Richard White will be informing the staff of the Willamette Queen how many to expect with our group. If you don’t know how to get in touch with Richard, just send me a note and I will pass it along to him.
TRUNK-OR-TREAT: October 31 is getting closer! Elizabeth Beach would love it if some people would be willing to help her with the planning and organizing of this year’s event. This is our 3rd annual trunk-or-treat. It is used as an outreach to our community and a way for us to make contact with families in our area. Along with hopefully making a great impression on people with our friendliness and dedicated service, we also are able to pass out brochures about the church and AWANA, give out gospel tracts, and other goodies. We also try to get all of the names and addresses of people. So please be in prayer for it, start collecting candy (there will be another competition!), and consider including your vehicle in this fun evening. In the last 2 years we have had cars, pickups, a firetruck, motorcycle, boat, a wagon, and even a small tank! Get involved. Get creative. Let Elizabeth know if you can help.
I am excited about the group of 20 or so guys that will be at Camp Tadmor for Men’s Roundup this weekend! Even if you didn’t register for it, you can still come up for individual sessions Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, or Sunday. Let me or Ivan Stutzman know if you need more information about that.
Seek the Lord while He may be found!
Love From Your Pastor,
Michael