Dear Friends,
Making a commitment can be a frightening thing! Yet, many people want to give themselves to have a life of significance. We don’t want to just limp through life, wishing we had taken a stand that meant something. Well, as Christians, that never should have to be a problem. God has planted you here. In the Bible, God has provided us with plenty of incentive to see our families, friends, co-workers, neighbors — and the people who live on the other side of the globe — find the love of God for them. Our significance is in Christ alone.
As we prepare our hearts to make a commitment to the Lord that we will be His church in the Upper Cape, we are seeing how the Bible supports our covenant. This Sunday, January 22, 2012, we will look at the next two commitments regarding serve in the ministry of our church and supporting the ministry of our church. It is exciting to me, as a pastor, to see the way God is working in our church. It is almost as if God wants to see people coming into a saving relationship with Himself!
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Casey Clough will share this Sunday concerning his trip to Israel this May. We are going to receive and offering this week to help him make this dream a reality. He needs $3,700 to be raised and be sent to Springfield, MO by February 3. If you can help him, it would be a wonderful way of saying “Thank you” for Casey’s service to our church over the last several years. If you will not be in worship this week, please make your check out to the Center for Holy Lands Studies, including only 2012 Bible Lands Study Trip in the memo, and send your gift attention: Sheila Mixer, 1445 North Boonville Avenue, Springfield, MO 65802. If you will join us this Sunday, we will receive a special offering.
Men, you’re invited to the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship of America. Starting January 21, 2012, we will be holding monthly meetings on the third Saturday of every month at 8:00 A.M. at the Hyannis Golf course on Route 132. There will be breakfast, worship and a guest speaker sharing a testimony of how God transforms lives that are yielded to Him. This is a great tool for evangelizing and an opportunity to hear the gospel in a way that is often more personal and effective than in our church settings. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Charles McLain at 508-444-6856, or cmclain_2000@yahoo.com.
This Week @ Pocasset Baptist Church
Tuesday, January 24
- 3:30 P.M. Bourne Manor Extended Care Facility Worship Service.
- 7:30 P.M. Our Men’s Ministry offers encouragement, Bible study and prayer for the men of our church. This week, we will study Psalm 104.
Wednesday, January 25
- 6:30 P.M. The Glory of God on Cape Cod regional prayer meeting will be held at Gateway Christian Center, Route 28 in Cotuit.
Thursday, January 26
- 7:30 P.M. Our ministry to the families of Primary Purpose. Only Ruth Leech is signed up to help with the children — please say you’ll be there to be a blessing to the kids.
Upcoming
- We will distribute baby bottles to fill with loose change to benefit A Woman’s Concern in Hyannis. Please bring your bottles back in four weeks, February 19, filled with change, in support of this worthy ministry to women here on the Cape.
- Next Sunday, January 29, is our Covenant Member Sunday. We will ask the congregation to sign the Membership Covenant and decide to be the Church of Jesus Christ! We will also pray for Tim Leech as he prepares to leave for five weeks of ministry to Japan with Samaritan’s Purse, in support of churches in the region of last March’s earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters.
- February 5 – Cape Vision Sunday. Pastors representing The Glory of God on Cape Cod will worship with us and share the vision God is giving to see the manifest presence of God come and Cape Cod won to Christ.
- Our Men’s Ministry will offer a new Bible study in the Gospel of Mark, beginning on Tuesday, February 7, 2012, at 7:30 P.M.
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I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. — 2 Timothy 1:6-7
I don’t believe God wants a fearful obedience, following the law to the letter to avoid dire consequences. Jesus tells us that all the “thou shalt nots” of the ten commandments are summed up in two great commandments: love God with all your being, and love your neighbor as yourself. Where is the fear in that?
All we need to do is choose God’s love over our own cowardly, petty ways. To use the vernacular, “Well, duh!” It’s a no brainer — but in the heat of day-to-day life it’s so easy to stray. Isn’t it wonderful that God lovingly reels us back to Him, if we let Him?
In His Precious Name,
Laura
