Hi FBC Friends!
The LORD is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His works. (Psalm 145:17)
Isn’t that a great combination? Righteous and kind. He is both holy and merciful. Perfect and gracious. What an amazing God! If He were not righteous, He would not be worthy of worship. If He were not kind (and gracious and merciful), our unrighteousness, our unworthiness, would prevent us from being able to be in relationship to Him. I’m glad He’s a “both/and” God, aren’t you?
This Sunday (at 9:00 a.m.) I will begin a new series on the book of Lamentations, called “Rivers of Tears.” Come prepared with handkerchief! No, seriously, I do hope you will come with heart prepared to hear what He wants to say to us through this often neglected book of the Bible. What made God’s prophet so upset? What things cause God grief? Does your heart break with the same things that break God’s? We’ll learn about these things in this series. The first message is on chapter 1, called “What Have We Become?” Please read the chapter before Sunday morning worship service.
Remember, we are going to work on a few memory verses together while studying Lamentations. The first one for this Sunday is an easy one! Lam. 1:18a – “The LORD is in the right, for I have rebelled against His word.” Let’s try to say that together Sunday.
Also, thank you for your flexibility and understanding as we do a little summer experiment with the times of our services. The morning worship is now 9:00 — 10:15, and Sunday School is 10:45 — 11:45. I know there are a few things to work out, but the good news from last Sunday is, we had a record Sunday School attendance of 121! Praise the Lord for that. I hope you will join us for both the worship service and Sunday School this week.
Some important events are coming up in the near future, and there is information in the bulletin about them (so make sure you read it)! But for a little heads up…
July 13 at 12pm – Quarterly Business Meeting
August 1-3 (or July 11-13 or Aug. 8-10) – Sons of Thunder Father/Son weekend at Camp Tadmor. www.cbnw.org/events/sot
August 23 – “I Still Do” one day marriage conference at the Moda Center in Portland. www.istilldo.com
August 24 – Noonish – Annual All-Church Picnic at the Miller’s Playground in Halsey. (Potluck, games, fellowship, etc.)
September 5-7 – Men’s Roundup at Tadmor. www.mensroundup.com
Thank you for continuing to faithfully pray for First Baptist Church, its members and regular attenders and pastor, and our work of developing devoted disciples of Jesus Christ! Please remember our 3 corporate prayer times on Wednesdays – 5am, 6am, and 7pm.
Praising the Lord for His righteousness and kindness!
Love From Your Pastor,
Michael