Church guide

"Every church should want to attract unbelievers.... Every church should desire to be attractive to the unsaved..." "But attractionalism takes these fairly obvious and benign desires and turns them into the raison d’être of the local church. Attractionalism shrinks the commands of Scripture. Attractionalism inverts the Great Commission, turning it into a command to get people to come to us—and then lops off the parts that require patience and longsuffering. Attractionalism indulgently prioritizes one biblical command—evangelism—at the expense of others—meaningful church membership and discipline."

Of everything on Facebook today, may I suggest this is one of the most important things you could turn your attention to. Saturday, June 29th: Day of the Christian Martyr

For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. (Isaiah 62:5)

"We should learn whether he does or not from Scripture, not from our prior notions of what good fathers do. Our notions are finite, and distorted by sin and culture. We must continually refine them by what the Bible teaches."

Yes, it can be noisy and a bit disruptive at times... but I love, love, LOVE having the children with us in worship service!

"Baptism demonstrates objectively and externally the subjective and internal 'appeal to God for a good conscience.' Baptism saves not as an outward act but through the inward faith it expresses."

One area I have been mulling over the last several months is how much is really healthy (or even necessary) for a church (and the pastor) to do self-promotion, specifically in the realm of social media. Social media is an excellent tool for letting people know what is going on at your church, for scheduling events, for providing links to helpful resources, and for letting people know where you are and what is going on. But the power of that tool is a double-edged sword: it is an all-too-easy way to feed the ego and satisfy our sinful desire for attention, recognition and self-affirmation. I have come to the conviction that the safest level of self-promotion is... none. I found the quote from the following article especially helpful in this regard: "Scripture points us, not to self-promotion, but to quiet, diligent, day-to-day faithfulness and the honing of our God-given skills for the good of others. In due time, as the fruit ripens, God may choose to inform others of your work and provide greater opportunity for leadership and influence. But until then, we are to labor patiently, not for eye-service, but for the sake of Christ and the good of others." This does not mean I am going to stop providing links to articles and posting Church events on Facebook. But what I am going to do is ask myself "why am I posting this?" before any post, and if it seems I am doing so out of a desire to make much of myself, or much of myself by making much of Creekside Baptist Church, then I will, by God's grace, refrain. "Simon Peter replied, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus answered him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.'" Matthew 16:16-18

So true!

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. Proverbs 3:5-6

Just a quick reminder: No Youth Group this evening!

The prayer I will be lifting up today at the National Day of Prayer ceremony today (Eagle City Hall, noon). A PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH You, O Lord, are in the Heavens; You do all that You please. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of You O God! How unsearchable are Your judgments and how inscrutable Your ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from You and through You and to You are all things. To YOU be glory forever. And it is for Your glory You have chosen a bride for Yourself, the church. You have chosen and ransomed her, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. For Your Son Jesus was slain, and by His blood ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation - making them a kingdom and priests to You our God. And as He who called us is holy, so also we are to be holy in all our conduct, for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.“ CONFESSION We confess now that we have not been holy. We have compromised Your command and Your word. We have called evil good, and good evil. We have embraced, affirmed and celebrated sinful behavior and cast doubt on the clarity and authority of Your word. OH LORD, forgive us we pray! We have embraced a perversion of marriage that is not one man and one woman for life. We have embraced a gospel that is not by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to Your glory alone. We have rejected the truth that we are made in Your image, and turned a blind eye to the murder of innocent children in the womb. We have feared men more than we fear You, we have sought the praise of man above Your praise. Forgive us O LORD! Grant us true repentance for our sins, repentance that not only grieves us but causes us to turn away from our sins, to mortify them, to put them to death! We confess these sins and we cry out to You Lord for mercy! Take not Your Spirit from us. Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within us. Cast us not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from us. Restore to us the joy of our salvation, and uphold us with a willing spirit. PETITION We ask now Lord that You would grant to Your servants whom You have chosen boldness to speak the truth in love, to Preach the word in season and out of season, and to reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. Fill us each one with a knowledge of Your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, that we would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to You, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Heavenly Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, according to the riches of Your glory grant that we be strengthened with power through Your Spirit, that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, that we being rooted and grounded in love, we may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. Grant Lord that we may live in harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together we may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Fill us with joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we may abound in hope. DOXOLOGY Now to Him who is able to keep us from stumbling and to present us blameless before the presence of your glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen

For a deserving young lady!

Got our road mix delivered today for our new shed. The dump truck operator knew what he was doing! Fun to watch! Glad I didn't have to haul it all in a wheelbarrow....