A Beautiful Bride

 

We will be in the presence of a Beautiful Bride tomorrow at Everett Springs Baptist Church.
What? Is there a surprise wedding you did not know about?
Are we having a special guest; a "bride to be" with us tomorrow?

The "Beautiful Bride" will be the Church that gathers for worship tomorrow. We will learn how Christ views the Church as His Bride and what that means to us.

Read Ephesians 5:22-33 in preparation for worship. While on the surface it appears to talk about the husband and wife relationship it in reality is showing us the love and relationship that Christ has with the Church. (Remember, Church is not where we go; it is who we are)

Ephesians 5:32 (ESV)
^"This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church."

The mystery of a Husband and Wife relationship points to the beauty and wonder of the relationship of Christ and the Church.

Tomorrow, in Ephesians 5, we will discover...

1. The PRICE paid for the Bride.
2. The PURITY of the Bride.
3. The PRETTINESS of the Bride.
4. The PROVISIONS for the Bride.
5. The PRIORITY of the Bride.
6. The PRACTICE of the Bride.
7. The PREPARATION of the Bride.

I believe you will be AMAZED to discover the relationship we, as a church, have with Christ.

I am praying for all the members of ESBC to gather together for worship and fellowship tomorrow so we can learn about and live as Christ's Beautiful Bride.

Is that Wedding Music I hear,
Pastor Mike

Revival under the Gold Dome?

There is a great article in the Christian Index about the situation in Atlanta concerning the firing of the Atlanta Fire Chief, Kelvin Cochran.

The article begins...

"Bishop Wellington Boone of Wellington Boone Ministries and founder and bishop of the Father’s House in Atlanta, with the voice of a trumpet proclaimed, “Thank God for Mayor Kasim Reed, because he does not know what he has just done. He has just awakened a sleeping giant.”"

Dr, J. Robert White, Executive Director of the Georgia Baptist Convention, said at the rally:

“Church, it is time to stand up for our faith. We have been very courteous and quiet, but now we must become courageous and vocal about those things we hold dear as Christians and as Americans.”

Read the rest of the article HERE.

We need to pray for all elected officials.
We also need to live like "Light" in the midst of a "crooked and twisted generation," (Phil 2:15)

Let's SHINE for the Lord,
Pastor Mike

Church as Community

I am excited about all I am learning as I read and prepare for our January messages on "His Glorious Church." I have been blessed, challenged and stretched as I have read Total CHURCH: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community. (Thanks for the book Zack!)

The authors emphasize the Church as community and they do so very well. Let me share a couple of excerpts that I believe are very important for us to understand.

"At the heart of God's plan of salvation are a family and a nation. God's purposes are not focused on many unrelated individuals but upon his people. Christ died for the elect, his bride, the church. The Bible is the story of God creating a new humanity, a new people who will be his people. "I will be your God, and you will be my people" is a central refrain running through the Bible. The church is not simply a historic convenience, a useful way of organizing discipleship and mission. No, the bride of Christ, complete and perfect, is right at the heart of the climax of salvation. And God's purposes are not only to redeem a people for himself but also to reconcile them with one another. The fall of humanity led to alienation not only from God but also from others. But in Christ the two have been made one, the dividing wall of hostility has been broken down (Ephesians 2:11-22). That is why Christian unity is so precious. God's great plan of reconciliation is now realized in the Church."

 "To be a Christian is, by definition, to be a part of the community of God's people. To be united with Christ is to be a part of his body. The assumption of the New Testament is that this always finds expression in commitment to a local church. The centrality of the church means the centrality of the congregation or it means nothing. Commitment to the church is easy while the church is abstract, universal reality. But the New Testament assumes a commitment to real people in real local churches with all the faults and foibles." (emphasis added)
(Total Church, p. 87-88)

I think "The centrality of the church means the centrality of the congregation or it means nothing." is a very important sentence in that paragraph. Either the local church is important and we should be an active participant in its ministries or it is nothing more than a social club that we can visit every so often.

As a Pastor, I am concerned for those who take a "social club" approach to church participation. I am concerned because "church" is more about "who we are" than "where we go" but when we know who we are we will desire to go and be a part of our local congregation.

In writing about Pastoral Care in the framework of community they write on page 135:

"If our primary identity is as persons-in-community, then our ability to THRIVE will be shaped by our involvement in a community. Life as it should be lived is life-in-community. Community is not merely an added benefit to me. It is an essential part of what it means to be human. And this means that the Christian community is essential to what it means to be a Christian." (Emphasis added)

Wow! Can you see why I am so passionate about the emphasis on the Church as we begin 2015 here at Everett Springs? Church is essential; and by church I mean the community of believers. We are many members in one BODY by God's design. Is it really possible for a believer to self amputate himself from the BODY that Christ died to create? I don't think so.  So why are there "professed" believers who are not an active part of any local church?

Could it be there is a profession of faith without a possession of faith? Could it be that some have allowed what appears to be "Urgent" to crowd out what is truly "important"? Is it possible that some need others "who are spiritual" to "restore him in a spirit of gentleness" to that from which they have fallen away? YES, to all the above. That is no doubt a reason the Apostle Paul instructed Timothy to "reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching." (2 Tim. 4:2). Because that is what we all need and we need it in the context of community that comes in and through our connection with a local church.

Local Church involvement is VITAL not optional for the life of a believer. It is for that reason that I plan, pray and prepare for each time we gather together. And that is why I write this. Jesus is building His Church and I want each member of what He is building to be an active participant in the Church.

Hope to see you when the Church gathers on Sunday!
Pastor Mike

Where is Your Light?

This past Sunday we focused on the church as "The Body of Christ." This was our first message in the series "His Glorious Church." 

There were three main truths emphasized in the message.
1. Christ is the HEAD of the Body.
2. We are to have HARMONY in the Body.
3. We should strive to be a HEALTHY Body.

Being the Church is more about LIFE than LOCATION. Church is "who we are" more than it is "where we go." The Church gathers at a location on Sunday morning for worship, fellowship and more. But what the world needs is for the Church to be the Church in the world. In it, but not of it.

We are to carry our light wherever we go. The following story from Sunday's message helps to illustrate this point.

In a certain mountain village in Europe several centuries ago, a nobleman wondered what legacy he should leave to his townspeople.

At last he decided to build them a church. No one saw the complete plans for the church until it was finished.

When the people gathered, they marveled at its beauty and completeness. Then someone asked, "But where are the lamps? How will it be lighted?"

The nobleman pointed to some brackets in the walls. Then he gave to each family a lamp which they were to bring with them each time they came to worship.

"Each time you are here the area where you are seated will be lighted," the nobleman said. "Each time you are not here, that area will be dark. This is to remind you that whenever you fail to come to church, some part of God's house will be dark.

Your Light is important when the church gathers to worship AND when it scatters to serve.

Where is Your Light?
Pastor Mike

Tweets and Such

Well, I better get the blog up to date now that I am entering the Twitterverse (is that a word?, it probably should be). I have set up a Twitter account as a means to quickly and easily keep our church family up to date on happenings here at the Church.

My Twitter account is @ESBCPastorMike for Church related updates.

So, I will Tweet with you later ... is that OK?

Pastor Mike