Yesterday I was privileged to be able to experience a major milestone at Faith after just three weeks as its pastor. I was present for the closing on the property that God has allowed us to be the stewards of and last evening many of us went there to pray and dedicate the land to the Lord.
It occured to me today, when I drove out to look at the property again, that the possibilities for what God intends to do on that 17 acres are endless. I could envision lots of things happening there that would bring glory to God and bring people into His kingdom. I got excited just thinking about it.
The steps that we take together over the next few weeks and months will determine how we measure up to God's plan for Faith Baptist. Those steps must be taken with care, in unity, and with absolute confidence.
- With care because our steps determine our destination. Each step is an important part of the process in getting to where God wants us to be. Each step must be taken following much prayer and consideration of God's will for us as a church.
- In unity because we must move in the same direction in order to avoid confusion and misdirection. The Word says, confusion is not of God. The history of the church of Acts suggests that God always shows up when His people are of one mind.
- With absolute confidence because when we hear from God and move in obedience to His commands, we can walk confidently forward knowing that God will honor His promises and see us through every circumstance.
I urge you to join with me in praying, believing, and moving confidently forward toward God's high calling for us as a church. What's next only God knows, but we can be sure that wherever He leads and whatever He calls us to do will be for our good and His glory!
Pastor Rick
I am bubbling over inside to find out about the finalization of the purchase of the property!!! I also feel led to share my urging of the Holy Spirit to look into the property to the east! I was told by the owner that they offered it to another church a couple of years ago for $250,000 and I told him it was far too much for us. He said we could make an offer on it. He is a Christian man. That does not insure anything; but I would like for us to pray about it and look into it. That is just my input and I certainly agree with you that we should only pursue it if the Holy Spirit leads us all in that direction. God has no bounds....only we limit Him many times!!!
ReplyDeleteYour right...the limitations we experience are usually self-imposed. I pray that we will always be open to whatever and wherever the Lord leads. Large or small, meeting our expectations or not, according to our preferences or not, may we always be listening to what God says, and obedient to His will. Thanks for the comment!
ReplyDeleteWe are saturating ourselves in a new understanding of prayer. Wednesday night's study on prayer has both of us looking deeply into how we pray. I posted on Facebook that it's like trying to write with my left hand. Just like anything new, it has been awkward. I find myself praying in generalities and I have to back up and start over - - Pastor Rick, does prayer have a delete key? (kidding)
ReplyDeleteIf all of us at Faith would grab ahold of the principles of powerful prayer as we go thru them, the unity & confidence barriers would not be a blip on the screen ~ Wow, just can't imagine how bright the Faith Baptist beacon would be. The bypass would be backed up for miles on Sunday morning with people trying to get to Faith, noses would be pressed up to the windows for a glimpse to see what is going on... and it simply starts with REAL prayer.
Yeah, now you're beginning to see it! God is honestly waiting at heaven's windows with buckets full of blessing that He wants to pour out on us. All He is waiting for is us to come to Him, get clean, and earnestly tell Him the desires of our hearts. Oh what the future could hold for us if we'd only get serious about prayer.
ReplyDelete"What Does it Look Like?" And, "What's Next?"
ReplyDeleteI think this is my first post to a blog ever! :)
I am excited about "What's Next" and some of "What I think it will look like" is already taking place, but I hope to see more of it.
When Pastor Rick and Jane interviewed with us, I knew I needed to get prepared for What's next." I did that by "stepping up" my prayer life and by reading the books "23 Minutes in Hell" and "90 Minutes in Heaven." I would challenge you to do the same.
Both Pastor Rick and Pastor Bill talked about how we should be willing to either walk or crawl across broken glass to tell people the things that we as Christians believe. I am certainly not at that point yet!
I have always inadvertently minimized my thoughts of Hell, (just what Satan would want us to do!) but since reading "23 Minutes in Hell" I continually try to remind myself of the images portrayed in that book and that HELL is REAL! This keeps me more aware of reaching the lost.
In my prayer life, I pray for God to send people to witness to loved ones that I don't know where they are. God brought to my mind that if I want Him to send someone, that I needed to be willing to be that "someone" to others for which people are praying! Again, I would challenge you to do the same.
"What it looks like:" is people's faces lighting up in Sunday School when they "get" (in the spirit) what is being talked about. "It looks like" people sharing after the Sunday morning service and before the Wednesday night service what God has been teaching them! Thanks Marsha!
"It looks like" people who come together on Saturday night to Pray for the Sunday Service. :) We just studied in Acts, in SS last Sunday, about people who prayed, broke bread, and studied the word DAILY in the temple. I think I'd like to see that! And, invite people to share in that.
"It looks like" people spending 30 seconds, on Wednesday night, calling out about 100 names of people who need salvation and spending more time praying than listing the requests. Praise the Lord! He "...that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think...." We just need to listen to His voice and obey.
Carolyn Jones said something about we need to be sharing with each other what Christ through His Holy Spirit is doing in our lives today. That is much like what Pastor Rick was talking about in our Wednesday night study on prayer when he was saying to spend time meditating on the wonderful attributes of God.
I get so excited about what God wants to do and about all the possibilities, that I have to restrain myself, and continually pray that God will get me out of the way, so I can hear Him, and be used by Him!
What I am grieved about is that I emailed someone that I have not seen at church in several weeks and learned that it has been 3 months and that I was the only one who contacted them. If anyone know of a plan in place or one that could be put into place to try to avoid this, please let me know. Thanks!
Pastor Rick I think I could "preach" in this blog almost as long as you! :)
I love you all!
Sandy
Hey! It finally went through! I am so busy learning things for work, that I haven't gotten use to Facebook and blogs. :)
ReplyDeleteOuch Sandy, I am sad that someone left Faith and you were the only one who bothered to contact them. They must surely think 'we don't care'. I am certain this scenario will get remedied soon. Right, Pastor Rick?
ReplyDeleteWhen we were on our 'church hunt' before coming to Faith, we went from one church to another and many times we felt 'invisible' - it is not a pleasant feeling.
I can see that Faith is gonna be a 'well-oiled Jesus machine' soon. Like Pastor Rick said, if we are all get clean, and fervently pray, all these 'rough edges' will disappear. One of my jobs for Jesus is to encourage and this makes me sad that one of our own went overboard and the rest of us on the boat, didn't notice.
Hey guys, listen. It's very sad that this happened...But here's the good news. God can use this situation to teach us to be more aware. One of the things that could be done right now is to contact this person and confess our fault in not missing them. It can't hurt, and the honesty might help. We are going to work on this, like we talked about tonight, but it's going to take a while to be a well-oiled Jesus machine. Sorry. In the meantime, let's try to make a point to write a note or call those who are missed and let them know that we really do care. Pastor Rick
ReplyDeleteI think that the welcome committee is a start in connecting with everybody in the church. With the welcome committee there are many opportunities to start a service out like God wants it to start. The impression begins in the parking lot and doesn't end in the parking lot. We should all say hi to people when we see them out whether they attend Faith or not. By acknowledging them the Lord will use us to minister to them. Pastor Rick is an ordained minister, but all believers in Christ are ministers. Hopefully we don't leave anybody behind. A few years ago Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act, it is nothing new to Christians as Christ has instructed us to Leave No Child Behind.
ReplyDelete