December Pastor’s Chat (Scroll down to see the verses!)
It has truly been a joy to be your pastor for another year. I have seen spiritual growth in many of you this past year. For this I give thanks to God! I also thank Him for the many truths that I have learned and been challenged with this year. Our church theme, God is Worthy, has been greatly used in my life to challenge me to offer up everything I have in worship of God, because He is worthy. The two adult Sunday School books that we have studied, When People are Big and God is Small and Knowing God, have been heart opening, mind enlightening, and life changing. I want to thank each of you who have encouraged me and prayed for me throughout the year. I would ask that you continue to hold me up before the throne of grace, that God would lead me and fill me by His Spirit to do the work which He has called me to do at First Baptist and in our community. By His grace I want to be a better pastor each year I have the privilege to serve as an undershepherd of one of Christ’s local flocks (I Peter 5:1-11).
This leads me to another request. Would you pray that God would lead in the selection of a church theme for 2010? Again in 2010, I would like to focus the “Pastor’s Chats” on such a theme that would help us in our walk with Christ and worship of God. If you have a suggestion for a new church theme for 2010 please talk with me or send me a note with your ideas.
Lastly, as we come into the Christmas season, I pray that you will have a worshipful Christmas with your family and a blessed New Year as you seek the Lord and serve Him. I pray that God will use each of us to spread the message of the grace and truth of Jesus Christ to our loved ones and acquaintances. Are you willing to “Just Ask?”
Blessings in the Name of our Saviour, Mark Worden, pastor
Selected Bible Verses to End and Start the Year
Revelation 4:11, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
Revelation 5:11-13, “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”
Isaiah 40:25-31, “To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.”
“Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Matthew 9:36-38, “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
