Would you say you are a good person?

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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