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 Pastor's Notes
Greetings
and grace to you in the wonderful name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Summer is on full blast, and we are
blessed of the Lord! I am writing
this newsletter on June 23, and the Lord has been at work during The Wonderful
Wednesdays of Summer, and we are not even half way through! I am certainly looking forward to
hearing from the remaining preachers.
I hope you are, and that you will invite your family, neighbors and
friends to come with you each Wednesday night (more details later). VBS has gone smoothly the first two
nights, and I want to thank Anessa Ferguson and Wendy Johnson, as well as
everyone that has helped in any way.
We may not realize or know the eternal difference that is made in these
children’s lives until we stand before the Lord, therefore may we always
put our whole heart into whatever ministry God leads us to do.
The We Are the Church
– It’s All About Membership, a Sunday
night worship and discipleship experience has been going well, but attendance
has not been what I had hoped. I
want to encourage each of you to attend, as this study deals with what God
expects from us as members of the body of Christ. I hope by now you understand that God
never expects anything from you that He does not first equip and empower you to
do. This study is as much about how
God has equipped and empowered us to be members in the body as what He expects
from us as members. Do you value
your church membership as much as you value your other types of
memberships? Come Learn, Love and Live to the glory of God!
July will bring a
flurry, not of snow, but of activities for you to participate in and be
blessing through. Our annual God
and Country celebration on Sunday, July 4th will include the three
“F’s” of being a Baptist; Fellowship, Food and Fun! Beginning with our Fellowship with the
Lord in worship, and then bring on the Food as we eat a meal together after
worship service. The Fun will come
all afternoon with swimming, volleyball, horseshoes, ice cream and continued
fellowship. The Wonderful
Wednesdays of Summer continue through July. Dr. Don Graham will be the preacher for
July 7th. Bro. Don
doesn’t need an introduction at ERBC, but if you have never heard him
preach, you do not want to miss this Wednesday. Dr. Chris Lamb, pastor of Glen Iris
Baptist, Birmingham, AL, will be our guest preacher on July 14th. Bro. Chris is a wonderfully humble man
of God, and you will be blessed with the Word God will give through him. Pastor Tim Keenum of Sardis Springs
Baptist Church is scheduled for July 21st. Bro. Tim has become a dear friend and
every time I hear him preach, I am challenged by the Lord through his
sermons. Pastor Kevin Ward will
preach on July 28th.
Bro. Kevin is the pastor of Salem Springs Baptist Church and is a very gifted
young man of God. Please invite and
bring someone with you for these Wonderful Wednesdays!
“This I
recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD’S mercies
that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail
not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my
portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and
quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.” (Lamentations 3:21-26)
In these evil and
uncertain days, where do you find hope?
Where do you turn for good news?
In the days that God inspired Jeremiah to write Lamentations there was
unrestrained evil in Israel and uncertainty abounded, but yet the man of God
remembered the Lord’s mercies and faithfulness. In that desperate hour, destitute and
deserted, Jeremiah abandoned himself to God! “The LORD is my portion …
therefore will I hope in Him” was the cry from the innermost part of
Jeremiah’s soul. I am
convinced that we in America today do not realize how desperate, destitute and
deserted we are. As Americans and
as Christians we have not abandoned ourselves to God. We have plans instead of prayers. We pridefully boast of past
accomplishments and self existence, when we should be prostrating ourselves
broken before our God in dependence upon His mercy and faithfulness. No, I do not see desperation nor even
sense it in our nation today, except in a few discerning souls. Yes, God has “not dealt with us
after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities,” but has
been longsuffering toward us, revealing His goodness that we might repent (Ps.
103:10; Rom. 2:4). “Let
us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.” (Lam. 3:40)
By His grace,
Toney
By His
grace,
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