Prayer Guide for our Nation and Election

You can download the 2012 prayer guide for our nation and election by clicking here. 

Odds and Ends...

Trunk or Treat - Happening on Sunday Night, October 28, from 6-8PM. We are doing a few things differently this year. From 6-7 we will have games and candy collecting in the Fellowship Hall and from 7-8 we will have a gospel presentation and prize giveaway and film in the Sanctuary. We need more tables! We also need candy! Please pray about helping by decorating a table for the competition and also please donate some candy to be given away.  

Operation Christmas Child - Our goal is 100 boxes - the largest goal we have ever had! This upcoming Sunday is our ingathering for these boxes! If you need a box, let us know and we will get more!

Lord’s Supper - This upcoming Sunday Morning we will be observing the Lord’s Supper. Please be in prayer and preparation for this as we will remember together the body that was broken and blood that was shed for our sins.   

Prayer Night for the Church - Has been moved to Wednesday Night October 24. We had to move it because of the renovations happening on our church baptistry. Please come out and pray for God to bless our church, our ministries, our growth, our outreach,  our vision, and our attitudes! We will have prayer stations set up throughout the church with a prayer guide for everyone. It will begin in the fellowship hall at 7PM. If you are unable to attend, prayer guides will be available early next week on our website and from our church office.  

Prayer Night for the Nation - Has already taken place this week. If you missed out on joining with us, you can download a prayer guide for our nation and for our election from our church website, or pick up a copy of the guide in our church office. Please carve out some serious time in your schedule and pray for God to bless our nation!

May God bless our church, our community, and our nation as we seek to do His will!

- Bro. Dave

What God does to our sin...

Psalm 103:12 says that God has removed our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west. What other imagery does the Bible use to speak of our sins being removed?

-       God remembers your sin no more (Isaiah 43:25; Jeremiah 31:14; Hebrews 10:17

"I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.").

-       God covers our sins, blots them out as a thick cloud (Romans 4:7; Isaiah 44:22

“I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.”).

-       God “cancelled out the certificate of debt,” and declares, “Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD will not take into account” (Psalm. 32:2).

-       God casts our sins behind his back (Isaiah 38:17 Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.).

-       God treads our iniquities under his feet (Micah 7:19).

-       God casts our sins into the depths of the sea (Also Micah 7:19 “He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”).

-       God cleanses us through the blood of Jesus Christ (1 John 1:7  “…and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”).

-       God atones or covers our sins in such a way that He even blots out the proof against us, nailing it to the cross (Romans 4:7-8; Colossians 2:14 “by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”).

A minister had sinned very badly and even though he had confessed his sin, he never felt forgiven. A lady in his church was always saying, "The Lord said to me …" It wasn't that he didn't believe her, because she was usually right, but she really irked him. One day he said, "If God is speaking to you, ask Him to tell you what it was I did years ago." A few days later, she came back to him. "Well?" he demanded. "Did you ask Him?" "Yes," she replied. "And what did He say?" asked the minister. "He said He doesn't remember."

Do you realize that all of your sins have been forgiven? Does this motivate you to want to obey Jesus?

-       Bro. Dave

What happens to those who have never heard the Gospel?

All people are accountable to God whether or not they have “heard about Him.” The Bible tells us that God has clearly revealed Himself in nature (Romans 1:20) and in the hearts of people (Ecclesiastes 3:11). The problem is that the human race is sinful; we all reject this knowledge of God and rebel against Him (Romans 1:21-23). If it were not for God's grace, we would be given over to the sinful desires of our hearts, allowing us to discover how useless and miserable life is apart from Him. He does this for those who continually reject Him (Romans 1:24-32).

In reality, it is not that some people have not heard about God. Rather, the problem is that they have rejected what they have heard and what is readily seen in nature. Deuteronomy 4:29 proclaims, “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” This verse teaches an important principle—everyone who truly seeks after God will find Him. If a person truly desires to know God, God will make Himself known.

The problem is “there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God” (Romans 3:11). People reject the knowledge of God that is present in nature and in their own hearts, and instead decide to worship a “god” of their own creation. It is foolish to debate the fairness of God sending someone to hell who never had the opportunity to hear the gospel of Christ. People are responsible to God for what God has already revealed to them. The Bible says that people reject this knowledge, and therefore God is just in condemning them to hell.

Instead of debating the fate of those who have never heard, we, as Christians, should be doing our best to make sure they do hear. We are called to spread the gospel throughout the nations (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8). We know people reject the knowledge of God revealed in nature, and that must motivate us to proclaim the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Only by accepting God’s grace through the Lord Jesus Christ can people be saved from their sins and rescued from an eternity apart from God.

If we assume that those who never hear the gospel are granted mercy from God and will go to heaven, we will run into a terrible problem. If people who never hear the gospel are saved, it is logical that we should make sure no one ever hears the gospel. The worst thing we could do would be to share the gospel with a person and have him or her reject it. However, the Bible is clear that people who do not hear and respond to the gospel will be condemned (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; 1 Timothy 2:5; John 3:36; 1 John 5:12). The strongest desire of our hearts towards lost people must be for their salvation.  Paul mentions this desire in Romans 10:1 and God Himself in 1 Timothy 2:4.

- Let us be faithful and obedient in sharing the Gospel!

-       -  Bro. Dave