It is always good to share some Sunday highlights with you on Monday
morning. I hope you find them as encouraging to read as I do to write them.
I am grateful that we continue to have guests in our Worship service
each Sunday. Let’s always be mindful to connect with our guests and be sure to
model that here at Salem Baptist Church “We love God, we love others, and we
live like it.” So be sure to warmly greet our guests, chat with them, ask where
they live, ask how they enjoy the services and let them know you are glad they
have chosen to worship with us. It would also be a great idea to invite our
regularly attending guests to come and join you in your Sunday morning Bible
Study class next Sunday.
I am thankful for all we discovered in Exodus 35 and 36 on Sunday. I am
so grateful for the practical relevance of God’s Word. Since we are all
building something there is something for us to learn from these two chapters
in Exodus. You may be building your career, many are building their family,
others are building their resume, several are building their skills and
together as a church family we are planning, preparing, and PRAYING for an
upcoming building project to add needed ministry and fellowship space.
As we build, we are reminded of the priority to keep God FIRST! As the
children of Israel gathered to hear God’s commands for them, as they were
preparing to build the Tabernacle, they were told “Six days shall work be done,
but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a Sabbath rest to the
Lord;” (Exodus 35:2). This was not a suggestion but rather a command. The
implications of the Sabbath were numerous to the Children of Israel. The most
basic application is the importance of keeping God first in all we do. No
matter what our own personal building project may be we must remember to keep
God first. It is all too easy to let the demands, the pressures, the deadlines,
the projects, the tasks and a hundred other things crowd out our relationship
with the Lord. It is all too easy to let the “project” become our lord. So God
reminds “the children of Israel” in no uncertain terms the priority He is to
have in all that they do.
Is he FIRST in your life? How? In what way can others see and know that
He is first? Maybe your own building project is faltering and now you know why –
priorities have gotten out of order. Your building project will ALWAYS be a
terrible lord! If you find yourself living with misplaced priorities you can
change that right now. Pray, confess the disordered priorities and tell God
that you want Him to have first priority in your life.
If you want to learn more about the importance of a Sabbath rest and
how a time of stillness in the midst of busyness is vital in the Christian life
then you would like reading “The Rest of God”
I have read it and heartily recommend it to you.
Speaking of rest, you probably need a rest from reading this article.
So, stop back by tomorrow and I will share one other highlight from our time in
the Word on Sunday.
Keep God First,
Pastor Mike
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