STIRRINGS AT BETHESDA
A Weekly Publication of
BETHESDA BAPTIST CHURCH
August 11, 2014
Ladies Book Study!
The next Ladies Book Study, Desperate, Seeking Simplicity finding the cross begins in just 8 days! The sign up sheet remains on the table in the foyer so, if you would like to join the study, either sign the sheet or call Pam and let her know.
The first class is Tuesday, August 19 at 6:30 p.m.
Upcoming Activities
1. Bethesda Academy, Monday, 6:30 p.m.
2. Business Meeting, Wednesday, 7:00 p.m.
3. Sunday School, Sunday, 9:15 a.m.
4. Worship Service, Sunday, 10:30 a.m.
5. Discipleship Training, Sunday, 5 p.m.
The Bethesda Academy
Chapter 6 is our focus for tonight (Monday). We begin our examination of the 7 seals. Come out and join us at 6:30 p.m.
Business Meeting
Our monthly business meeting is this Wednesday at 7 p.m. I encourage every member to come and help our church make the decisions the Lord has placed before us.
Once men invent gods of their own making, they can then rewrite the rules of human conduct.
Ray Pritchard
Discipleship Training
Our Sunday evening class time is covering the topic of Spiritual Gifts. Dennis is leading this study each week at 5 p.m. Come out and be a part of this training as well as enjoy the fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ!
When we reject God and we reject his standards, we dont become more free and more human. We become less free. We become bound. We become in bondage to those desires. And we become less human, because we are less reflecting the image of God, because God is holy.
J. Ligon Duncan
Pastor’s Postscript
I saw a young adult (probably mid-30s) wearing a T-shirt this week which caught my eye. On the back of the shirt were the following words:
Every day is a role play.
Take a moment and think about what that shirt is communicating concerning the individual who is wearing it. Of course, I dont believe the shirts designer or the man wearing it really meant what the shirt said. It was simply intended to be funny. But I wonder how many people actually live their life using that philosophy? Perhaps they do not even realize they are doing so.
To say every day is a role play implies each and every day you live is an act. Depending upon the day, the people you meet, the activities you have scheduled, your life is simply that of an actor playing some prescribed role. You are not the person you pretend to be. No one can truly know you. How can they when you wear a mask at all times?
Actually, I think many people live their life exactly that way. I believe even some professing Christians (could some possibly be members of our church?!) have such lives. They park their car in the church lot, put on their Sunday Worship mask, and enter the church. Once church is over, they return to the car, remove their mask, store it until next week, and then put on another mask for their next event: a mask for their job, another mask for their school, a third mask for home, and so on.
True Christians do not wear a mask to church. They dont have a Jesus mask because they have been born again into the image of Jesus Christ! They look like Jesus 24 hours a day, every day of the week, every week of the year because they are a new creature!
This takes place in what the Bible and theologians call regeneration (i.e., the new birth, being born again). Gods Spirit comes into our lives and raises that spiritually dead person to new life, the life of Christ.
So, the role believers play each and every day is not an act; it is a life lived as Jesus lived and a life lived for Jesus sake. Jesus is not our mask: He is who we are.
I do pray the Lord gives you a wonderful week and blesses you more than you deserve and expect!
P.S. Thank you to everyone who turned out on Saturday evening for our Roller Skating Fellowship. It was a fun time and we had a great turn out. Also, thank you to the Fellowship Committee who planned the fellowship and reserved the skating rink.