When's the last time you had a teenager tell you "thank you for letting us serve you"? That came from the young people from Central Community Church, Harrisburg, Arkansas.
They came up to help us with VBS this year, but also to do a service project. After a long day Monday of painting the hallway in the children's department, and being on their knees a good while scraping dropped paint from the floor, one of them as they finished said "thank you for letting us serve you." Normally you hear, I'm glad that's over, I didn't realize all this was involved, or other such oh me statements. But, to hear a such a statement from such a young believer was a blessing.
We are studying 'growing in grace' here at Rea Valley Baptist for the past few weeks. That's a perfect illustration of how Jesus illustrated it in John 13 by washing the disciple's feet.
Thank YOU Central Community Church for sharing your young mission team with us for awhile. God bless all of you as you continue to 'grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ'.
Thanks Rea Valley Baptist for such a great VBS. Miracles are still God's business. Many took place this past week. To God be the glory!
keep praying and growing,
Jack Gilliland, pastor
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
"Go out into the highways and hedges. . ."
Jesus said in Luke 14. He was illustrating with a story about God's invitation to mankind about His salvation. Several things to note here that we at Rea Valley can learn from.
One is that the Lord uses food, feasting, banquets and so many other varieties of things associating salvation with one of most basic of our physical needs. . . eating. Not one of us should miss that analogy. We all do love to eat. We had lots of practice.
One other thing is how many people who were originally invited to this banquet in Jesus's story made excuses as to why they didn't want to come in. Would you buy some land and not look at it first?
But, the thing I want to emphasize for us is the part where He sends out His servants to the highways and hedges to get those people.
Growing in grace is definitely of importance to us if we are to be able to do this. We are looking at developing our bus ministry. That is hard work. There are no short cuts or easy solutions. But, the blessing is that He gives His grace to be able to accomplish it. We've seen it at work now for the last couple of years on our Wednesday evenings. We've seen it work on a small scale on Sundays. However we may feel, the call still remains for His servants to "go out into the highways and hedges and bring them in." Whether they answer the invitation or not, we are still need to feel the master's heart and go get them.
Mark down August 7th, right after church. Bring your lunch and we'll work on how to do this.
One is that the Lord uses food, feasting, banquets and so many other varieties of things associating salvation with one of most basic of our physical needs. . . eating. Not one of us should miss that analogy. We all do love to eat. We had lots of practice.
One other thing is how many people who were originally invited to this banquet in Jesus's story made excuses as to why they didn't want to come in. Would you buy some land and not look at it first?
But, the thing I want to emphasize for us is the part where He sends out His servants to the highways and hedges to get those people.
Growing in grace is definitely of importance to us if we are to be able to do this. We are looking at developing our bus ministry. That is hard work. There are no short cuts or easy solutions. But, the blessing is that He gives His grace to be able to accomplish it. We've seen it at work now for the last couple of years on our Wednesday evenings. We've seen it work on a small scale on Sundays. However we may feel, the call still remains for His servants to "go out into the highways and hedges and bring them in." Whether they answer the invitation or not, we are still need to feel the master's heart and go get them.
Mark down August 7th, right after church. Bring your lunch and we'll work on how to do this.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Growing in grace continues. . .
Up close and personal. Last week I wrote about the young people ( Immanuel church from Nashville, and our own) and what a blessing to see the Lord using them and 'growing them in grace' as they served and shared with us how God is working in our lives. That was truly a blessing of grace then, but nothing compared to what my family was to experience last weekend with Brad, Sara, and Shelly's accident.
I was not able to be with you last Sunday because I had been in the ER and finally ICU at Baxter Regional with Brad there and Sara on the 3rd floor. I listened helplessly as the Dr said "I don't want to give you any false hopes, Brad is still in danger. The next several hours will tell. He could go either way." And the other doctor that had examined Sara looked at her and said "no you're not alright; you've had a heart attack." My head fell down against my arm on the rail of the gurney Brad was laying on and my heart cried "Lord, help".
This is not the first time I've been in this particular valley. Each time there is a very strong reoccurance of God's presence and assurance that He is there, and in control.
I got on our modernized 'grapevine' called facebook and posted simple 'help, need prayer' message. You heard it. Thank you.
It's been unbelievable how many calls, visits, notes, and all answering the cry for help. God moved people's hearts in a powerful way, just to say " I'm here, I've got this".
I'm trying to piece together the several facets of this story and will write it into a more coherent version later, but there is a lot more to this than just the surface of the accident. You see, our daughter was scheduled to go on a mission trip to Haiti to join her husband Robby at the time this happened. She was torn between staying here to help her mom, and brother, while at the same time listening to God call her heart to 'join Him' there. What a blessing to listen to her share her burden with me and then decide to 'join Him'. Again, growing in God's grace continues.
There are more than just these testimonies coming in. Some of you have shared things happening in your lives also that are making God's personal presence more real and blessed than ever.
It's starting to appear that the enemy does not want us to learn about this wonderful Lord Jesus we have to walk with us through our lives. He is more than just a nice Bible story character that we can teach our children about on Sunday morning. He is our "wonderful, counselor, mighty God, prince of peace" saviour, Christ Jesus the Lord. "Now unto Him who is able. . . ".
God bless all of you
Jack
I was not able to be with you last Sunday because I had been in the ER and finally ICU at Baxter Regional with Brad there and Sara on the 3rd floor. I listened helplessly as the Dr said "I don't want to give you any false hopes, Brad is still in danger. The next several hours will tell. He could go either way." And the other doctor that had examined Sara looked at her and said "no you're not alright; you've had a heart attack." My head fell down against my arm on the rail of the gurney Brad was laying on and my heart cried "Lord, help".
This is not the first time I've been in this particular valley. Each time there is a very strong reoccurance of God's presence and assurance that He is there, and in control.
I got on our modernized 'grapevine' called facebook and posted simple 'help, need prayer' message. You heard it. Thank you.
It's been unbelievable how many calls, visits, notes, and all answering the cry for help. God moved people's hearts in a powerful way, just to say " I'm here, I've got this".
I'm trying to piece together the several facets of this story and will write it into a more coherent version later, but there is a lot more to this than just the surface of the accident. You see, our daughter was scheduled to go on a mission trip to Haiti to join her husband Robby at the time this happened. She was torn between staying here to help her mom, and brother, while at the same time listening to God call her heart to 'join Him' there. What a blessing to listen to her share her burden with me and then decide to 'join Him'. Again, growing in God's grace continues.
There are more than just these testimonies coming in. Some of you have shared things happening in your lives also that are making God's personal presence more real and blessed than ever.
It's starting to appear that the enemy does not want us to learn about this wonderful Lord Jesus we have to walk with us through our lives. He is more than just a nice Bible story character that we can teach our children about on Sunday morning. He is our "wonderful, counselor, mighty God, prince of peace" saviour, Christ Jesus the Lord. "Now unto Him who is able. . . ".
God bless all of you
Jack
Friday, July 1, 2011
Evidences of God's Grace. . .
It's one thing to read of God's promises and hear the Bible stories about His working in the lives of Abraham, Moses, and NT disciples, but it is even more exciting when you see it NOW in the lives of our young people.
This week we had 'visitors' from Immanuel Baptist in Nashville, Arkansas. They were on their travel week. It was kind of like church camp on wheels. They were doing fun stuff such as going to the Passion Play in Eureka Springs and Silver Dollar City. But they had also planned this as a mission trip also. The church they were scheduled to work at cancelled out on them. Instead of saying to themselves 'well, it's too hot we'll just skip the work part', they called our White River Baptist office and offered themselves to any of our churches. They were sent to us and what a blessing they were.
After weed whacking the whole back yard of the church, cleaning inside, painting the rest of the floor in the youth room, and canvasing the valley and town for our VBS, they gathered around the piano and led a worship time of praise songs. . . not just once but several times on their rest breaks. Again, what a blessing.
To top it off, I took one of our small boys home that night after all the events. It was his first time to be at our church. I asked him did he like it. He said, "that was my first time at your church, I want to come back."
See you Sunday morning.
God bless y'all
Jack
This week we had 'visitors' from Immanuel Baptist in Nashville, Arkansas. They were on their travel week. It was kind of like church camp on wheels. They were doing fun stuff such as going to the Passion Play in Eureka Springs and Silver Dollar City. But they had also planned this as a mission trip also. The church they were scheduled to work at cancelled out on them. Instead of saying to themselves 'well, it's too hot we'll just skip the work part', they called our White River Baptist office and offered themselves to any of our churches. They were sent to us and what a blessing they were.
After weed whacking the whole back yard of the church, cleaning inside, painting the rest of the floor in the youth room, and canvasing the valley and town for our VBS, they gathered around the piano and led a worship time of praise songs. . . not just once but several times on their rest breaks. Again, what a blessing.
To top it off, I took one of our small boys home that night after all the events. It was his first time to be at our church. I asked him did he like it. He said, "that was my first time at your church, I want to come back."
See you Sunday morning.
God bless y'all
Jack
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