Hello BOL Family 05/07/2020
This coming Sunday will be 9 weeks since our last service. I know to some that it may seem much longer. For now, it appears that the 17th of May will be the first day that we will get back together for corporate worship. I know we are all looking forward to starting up our services again, and to see one another face to face. However, when we do come back there will be safety precautions put in place for all of us to follow. These will come in the letter I send to you next week and will also be handed out when you first come in the door. They will also be on the overhead before service and posted throughout the building. Lavaughn and I will come down to the church next week to go through and sanitize everything possible. Those who are sick, we advise to stay home for your sake and for the sake of others. There may be some of you who are apprehensive about coming back to church, and that is okay. Come only when you feel that it is safe for you to get out. We will keep you posted by letter, phone, or text messages. BTW, LaVaughn and I want to wish all the women in our church a very HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! Although we will not be in church Sunday to celebrate this day, LaVaughn will have something for all the women on the 17th.
Many of us are aware that something very disturbing is on the horizon for the church in our society. The church in third world countries have been suffering persecution for decades if not longer. But can this happen in America? Can the local, city, state, and government offices of our country begin to interfere with the way we worship God that has been protected by our constitution for almost two and a half centuries? Could it be possible that we are told that we can not preach or teach Christ and Him crucified? Should any of these scenarios materialize, what will we do as a body of believers? Better yet, what will we do as individual Christians? I am asking all these questions to get us to prayerfully search the scriptures to learn what we are commanded to do, and in what spirit to do it. There is a lot I can say on this subject, but for now I want us all to focus on this one verse:
Matthew 5:44 (KJV) “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”
This is a command given by Jesus, not just a suggestion. Should America ever get to the place where officials step in and tell us what to do or else, what will we do? Will we react in the flesh or in the Spirit? If this does happen, they will obviously be our enemies. Are we going to obey the command to love them, or are we going to hate them? Should they curse us to our faces, will we bless them? Are we Christ centered enough to do good to those who hate us? And will we pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us? Are we spiritually mature enough to view our enemies as people for whom Christ died? Will our response under persecution repel them from, or draw them to Christ? Are we going to be Christians that seek the will and pleasure of God, or will we give into our carnal nature and respond in the flesh?
I am full of questions, aren’t I? My prayer is that we all begin seeking God more and more as we see these days approaching. I know that the Lord will continue to work through His church, regardless of what our enemies do to us. We see the example of this in the book of Acts. May we make the work of the Kingdom of God the meditation of our hearts so that when the time comes we will know how to answer our enemies, trusting that the Holy Spirit will give us in that day what to speak.
LaVaughn and I love you all and look forward to seeing you on the 17th.
There was a little old lady, who every morning stepped onto her front porch, raised her arms to the sky, and shouted: ‘PRAISE THE LORD!’ One day an atheist moved into the house next door. He became irritated at the little old lady.Every morning he’d step onto his front porch after her and yell: ‘THERE IS NO LORD!’Time passed with the two of them carrying on thisway every day.One morning, in the middle of winter, the little old lady stepped onto her front porch and shouted: ‘PRAISE THE LORD! Please Lord, I have no food and I am starving, provide for me, oh Lord! The next morning she stepped out onto her porch and there were two huge bags of groceries sitting there.. ‘PRAISE THE LORD!’ she cried out. ‘HE HAS PROVIDED GROCERIES FOR ME!’The atheist neighbor jumped out of the hedges and shouted:’THERE IS NO LORD; I BOUGHT THOSE GROCERIES!!’The little old lady threw her arms into the air and shouted: ‘PRAISE THE LORD! HE HAS PROVIDED ME WITH GROCERIES AND MADE THE DEVIL PAY FOR THEM!’