First Baptist Church Richwood

AWANA is canceled for Sunday, February 7, 2010.

We ARE having service @ 10:40am

Please use your best judgment on coming to church due to the snow and cold weather.

“The will of God will never take you where the grace of God cannot keep you.”

I’m not sure who was the first person to utter those words, but they were spot on.

* When God calls us to go somewhere, His grace goes with us.
* When He calls us to do something, His grace empowers us.
* When He calls us to endure something, His grace sustains us.
* When He calls us to say something, His grace speaks for us.

We can’t misinterpret grace as a guarantor of success. There is still risk in following the will of God. But in His grace, God can even turn our failures into His victories.

The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4, “We are fools for Christ…” (1 Corinthians 4:10a, NIV)

Oftentimes the will of God seems foolish to our world. And so, by following His will, we are viewed as fools. We will be criticized, mocked, laughed off, and condemned if we follow His will.

But when we are rejected for following the will of God, the grace of God shows up all the more.

Matthew 16:23 is such a great reminder for us all. Jesus warning Peter “Get away from me, satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s” When we look at life from a human point of view it becomes dangerous! We must look at life from God’s perspective!

Here are a couple of prayers to pray as we begin 2010:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

~St. Francis

Good Master, grant
that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

~St. Francis

Do you find it difficult to forgive one who has wronged you? Then you will find it difficult to get to heaven. ~Charles Spurgeon

When deep injury is done to us; we never recover until we forgive.”

“

God is a forgiving God. He promises that as far as the east is from the west that’s how far He removes our sins from us.

One point a lot of Christ Followers choose to ignore is that even though God forgives our sins, we still must face the consequences of them. Sin is sin. All sin that remains unconfessed and unrepented of will send the sinner to hell. Different sins have different consequences.

If an individual went and chose to engage in sinful behaviors and contracted HIV but then later in life turned to God in repentence; God would forgive that person, but God is not obligated to remove or heal the person of HIV. The HIV would be a lingering consequence of that sinful choice.

God loves everyone and does not want to see anyone perish, but even King David confessed that the consequences of his sins were lifelong. Sometimes, we too, will have to carry lifelong reminders of our sins, but we can be assurred that God has indeed forgiven us, so long as we call on Him and sincerely, humbly ask for His forgiveness of all of our sins.

Be Blessed!

Sue Sarver is finally home from the hospital, praise God! Please continue to life up Sue, Jake and their entire family in your prayers as Sue continues to recover.

Please continue to hold Jim & Linda Wright in your prayers. Please pray that the radiation Jim receives will shrink the mass in his throat so that he can verbally communicate.

Father in Heaven, I pray your comfort, peace and healing for these folks in the mighty name of Jesus. AMEN!