Category: A Word From… Forerunner Front Page News

The Sunday morning worship service is one of the most important times in the week. This is the time when the largest group of Christians gather. It is a time that is most closely associated with church life. I wonder, however, if we truly maximize that time?

Several years ago I came across a beautiful statement of commitment for worship that I encourage you to practice on a regular basis (I would like to give proper credit to the author, but don’t have a record of who actually wrote this):

“I will prepare for worship. I will ask God to prepare my heart. I will ask Him to help me hear God’s Word clearly. I will ask Him to speak to me that I might be changed.

I will prepare for worship. I pray that I will not be distracted by my own preferences: By the style of music; the length of the sermon; the place where I sit; or anything that would cause me to focus on me instead of God.

I will prepare for worship. I will pray for my pastor that the sermon will be anointed. I will pray for strength for my pastor and for encouragement in a world that often offers little.

I will prepare for worship. I will pray for other leaders in the church – leaders often unnoticed and unappreciated – and specifically for those who sacrificially care for our children in the services.

I will prepare for worship. I will pray that I will hear God’s voice in the music, in the prayers, and in every moment we gather as a body of believers, united in heart, focus, and purpose.

I will prepare for worship. I will pray with my family before we leave to go to the church service. I will also pray alone for the services even if it’s only for a few minutes.

I will prepare for worship. As I see fellow believers enter to worship together, I will pray for them and their families, and I will pray for their own hearts of worship.

I will prepare for worship. I understand I am blessed to be able to gather because I know that many Christians around the world are being persecuted and banned from such times.

I will prepare for worship. I pray I will understand that it is a foretaste of heaven, and that I will never take such times for granted, I pray I will truly rejoice in the house of the Lord.

I will prepare for worship. Thank you, God, for your grace. Thank you, God, for your goodness and for allowing me these precious moments to gather to worship You.”

Will you commit to preparing your heart for worship?

 

Blessings,

Pastor Derald

 

This is a season of celebrations and transitions. We have celebrated the birth of our Savior. We celebrated the love of friends and family. We celebrated the wonderful blessings God has given us and we prepare for the end of one year and the beginning of another.

The New Year brings a blank slate, a fresh start and a wealth of new opportunities. 2023 is over and a brand new 2024 stretches before us. The turning of the calendar usually causes us to re-examine our personal lives – and make commitments to do some things differently. I hope you will take some time to work on your goals for 2024. Set goals for your spiritual growth. Don’t just make “New Years’ Resolutions” that you know you won’t keep. Set real goals – realistic goals that you can measure. Don’t waste this New Year that God has given you. Accept the challenge to find new ways to serve God and others through Fee Fee Baptist Church.

A new year also gives us the opportunity to re-examine our church life. Is Fee Fee Baptist Church a better church now than it was in January of 2023? If not, why not? I know many of you will say it is because of the lack of a full-time pastor, but that is just one person. What have you done in the past 12 months to move the church forward? How active have you been in ministry, prayer, worship, discipleship and evangelism? When you look at Fee Fee Baptist Church do you see the opportunities that God is giving us, the ministries that are touching the lives of many hurting people and the warm fellowship of loving people? Or do you just see negative things?

I believe God wants us to focus on the positives of the church and work as a congregation to meet the challenges that face us. Let me challenge you to look at what you are doing in ministry and at what needs to be done. How can you personally get more involved in building our church? When you see things that need to be done, ask yourself if you might be the one to accomplish that task. When you see problems, ask yourself if you might be the solution. When you talk to people about our church, talk about the positive things God is doing and not the negatives that Satan keeps pointing out.

I hope you are excited about the possibilities for more joyous worship and greater church fellowship that our new Sunday morning schedule gives us. I believe many will be surprised what a difference this will make for our church. If you are a bit hesitant about the new schedule – that is normal. Let me encourage you to give it a chance.

Look for the good that it will bring. Don’t just focus on the few things you might not like about the schedule or the worship style or the fact that someone from the “other” service is setting in YOUR seat! If you believe God will bless Fee Fee Baptist Church through these changes, you will be amazed by the blessings you see.

God wants to greatly bless the ministries of Fee Fee Baptist Church in 2024. He is calling each of us to be a part of what He is doing here.

Blessings,
Pastor Derald

 

We are starting a new series on the Life and Teachings of Jesus on Sunday, December 3. As we’ll see, Jesus always challenges our preconceptions.

Take, for example, the story of a rich young man who approaches Jesus and asks, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Matthew 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23). Now, if someone were to ask most of us that question, we’d be elated.

Here’s someone primed to hear the gospel! The hook is set … we just need to reel him in: tell him that he needs to trust in Jesus, repent of his sins, and get baptized. Get this guy in church, put him in a Sunday school class, assign him an offering number, and have him over for dinner – we got ourselves a winner!

But this isn’t what Jesus does. Instead of sealing the deal, He pushes back: “Why do you call me good?” Perhaps we read this and think, “Cut him some slack Jesus! Can’t you tell he wants to get saved? He’ll learn in time.” Then, before the young man can answer, Jesus digs even further: “Are you keeping the 10 Commandments?”

Shockingly, the young man claims that he has – and Jesus doesn’t doubt it! Gosh. Now we’re talking about a young, rich, powerful, and good guy! “Reel him in now, Jesus!” But He doesn’t. He keeps asking for more:

“You need to do one more thing. Sell everything you own and give it away.” That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think? “Jesus, you mean to tell us that you made this guy sell everything before joining us?! What were you thinking?! Since when do we have to sell everything? He could have given his money to the church instead!”

The Gospels tell us that the young man, who at first seemed so eager to follow Jesus, went away sad.

For someone who called “fishers of people,” sent 70 people out on mission, and charged His followers to spread the gospel throughout the world, Jesus seems to drop the ball here. How could Jesus miss such an easy opportunity with this rich young man? Maybe Jesus just isn’t missionary material.

But, then again, maybe I’m the one to blame. Maybe my standard of what a good evangelist looks like is the problem. Maybe Jesus wasn’t such a terrible evangelist after all. Maybe I’m just too happy with mediocre disciples.

With the fullness of the Gospels in front of us, we see precisely what Jesus was doing with this rich young man. Jesus teaches that being His true follower means abandoning everything for His sake. He wants us to take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Him. This is the necessary step in evangelism as far as Jesus is concerned.

Jesus won’t be our savior if He is not our lord. This is what He was showing the young man: “are you ready to make me boss?” Maybe we need the perfect evangelist Jesus to evangelize us again.

Blessings,
Pastor Matt

 

We are entering the season of the year that is usually the busiest for churches and individuals. Thanksgiving will be here in just a few short weeks and the Christmas season follows immediately after that. There will be numerous family gatherings, huge meals to cook, travel to plan and carry out, parties to plan and attend and shopping to do.

There will also be Thanksgiving and Christmas activities at church – music to prepare, individuals and families to care for and special opportunities for worship. This is the time of year that more people come to church and think about Jesus Christ.

These are all good things. They can be exciting. They can be productive. And they can sometimes become almost overwhelming.

Over the next few weeks, we will be completing the shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child; buying gifts for individuals from the Angel Tree and helping to provide for missionaries all around the world through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Please don’t let all these projects stress you. God calls us to experience joy through helping others and not feel burdened by the process.

The seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas are meant to be seasons of great joy. They should fill us with gratitude to God for all the many blessings of life – the greatest of which was the incarnation that we celebrate at Christmas. This time of year reminds us that God loves us more than life itself. In the midst of the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving and Christmas, remind yourself that God promises us all of the strength and energy we need to serve Him. So, let’s look for ways to let God fill us with His strength.

As always, I urge you to encourage each other. Look for ways to help each other. Look for the good that God is doing at Fee Fee and not the bad that Satan is trying to do. Pray for your church leaders – your deacons, Sunday school teachers, missions and ministry leaders, support staff, worship teams and others.

I want to encourage you to find ways to show God’s love to the people in your life. There may be people in our church who will not be able to celebrate with family (for a variety of reasons). Please look for ways to include those wonderful people in your celebrations – invite someone to Thanksgiving Dinner or a Christmas gathering. No one should be alone during those times. Find ways to let God use you to breathe new life and energy into Fee Fee Baptist Church.

Blessings,
Pastor Derald

My daughter Evelyn’s favorite song as a young toddler was “One Day” by the Hasidic Jewish reggae/hip-hop beatboxing artist Matisyahu (honestly). I take credit for this. (Oh, the joys of having exclusive control of the iPod in those days…) In this song Matisyahu offers a vision of “one day” when people will abandon violence for peace:

All my life I been waitin’ for / I been prayin’ for, for the people to say / That we don’t want to fight no more /There’ll be no more wars and our children will play / One day…

Matisyahu’s vision recalls the Old Testament prophets’ hope: “God shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Micah 4:3; Isaiah 2:4).

Like the prophets in the Old Testament, Matisyahu is unhappy with the present state of the world. In his song “King without a Crown,” Matisyahu longs for a Messiah:

What’s this feeling? / My love will rip a hole through the ceiling / I give myself to you from the essence of my being / And I sing to my God all these songs of love and healing / I want Moshiach (Messiah) now

Of course, those of us who confess Jesus as Messiah believe the Messiah has already come. By the death and resurrection of Jesus, God the Father through the Holy Spirit frees us from slavery to sin and death. We should give thanks to God for this deliverance. However, at the same time, I think we also need to embrace Matisyahu’s angst. He’s right: the world isn’t as it should be.

In this series on 1-2 Thessalonians, we’ve seen how central the second coming of Jesus is to Paul’s theology. Nearly every chapter in 1-2 Thessalonians mentions the second coming. Jesus is coming back, and this gives us hope! Still, though, even as we anxiously hope for the second coming of our Messiah, I sometimes feel the same angst as Matisyahu and the prophets. The world is unjust. Life isn’t fair. Our society is founded by and sustained by violence and injustice. Sin has corrupted everything. Things aren’t the way they should be. Stuff ain’t right. This makes me “want Moshiach now.” But, thanks be to God, I know that “One Day” is coming when God will make all things right.

 

 

The Old Testament book of Haggai tells part of the story of rebuilding the

Temple after the people returned to Jerusalem from exile. In Haggai’s day, the

people were discouraged because things were not going as well as they

expected. They saw the Temple that was currently being built and believed that

it could never be as great and glorious as the Temple Solomon built.

So, God spoke to His people through Haggai to bring them the courage they

needed to complete God’s work. He opened their eyes to the reality of His glory

which was to come.

Haggai 2: 6-9 “For this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: In just a little

while I will again shake the heavens and the earth, the oceans, and the dry

land. I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will be

brought to this Temple. I will fill this place with glory, says the LORD of Heaven’s

Armies. … The future glory of this Temple will be greater than its past glory…

And in this place I will bring peace. I, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, have

spoken!”

What was God telling His people? THE BEST IS YET TO COME!

God promises that the glory of this second Temple will eclipse the glory of

Solomon’s Temple. How could that be? Very simple. This Temple would be

visited some 500 years later by Jesus Himself. This would be the place God

Himself would visit in the person of Jesus Christ. Solomon’s temple, for all its

grandeur and glory, couldn’t make that claim.

So, even though this small beginning of a temple didn’t look like much to the

people, God has big plans for it in the future. God sees what Israel can’t see, so

He gives them a glimpse of what’s to come.

This glimpse was just enough to encourage them, just enough to fuel their faith

to persevere.

Too often, we compare Fee Fee Baptist Church today with the Fee Fee Baptist

Church of yesterday (and this church has a LOT of yesterdays!). The enemy

tempts us to think that the best days of this church are behind us. But as I look at

FFBC through the perspective of what God is doing and can do here, I see

children and young people coming to know Christ and being baptized. I see our

people ministering to the community around us in ways we would never have

imagined just a few years ago. I see our people going around the world to share

the Gospel. I see a growing ethnic diversity in our congregation. I see sparks of

what God wants to do through us.

God is telling us, “The best days for this church are ahead of us!” The Best Is Yet

to Come!

 

 

The New Testament describes the church in many ways. For Paul, the church is a body, with Christ as the head and we the members. Matthew’s gospel pictures the church like a community of learning disciples who are being trained to go out into the world. John imagines the church like a community of light contrasting with the dark world. In Acts, the church is a Spirit-led community fulfilling God’s plan to gather people from every nation. The church in 1 Peter is a group of Christians who, like living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house. Revelation sees the church as a community of persecuted believers who refuse to submit to the powers of greed and violence, while waiting for the day when God sets the world straight again.

The church in Hebrews, which I want to focus on here, is a community on the move. Brothers and sisters find themselves on the same journey to God’s good future: “Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Heb 13:13-14). The success of this journey is not guaranteed, though. Hebrews calls all of us to be faithful to God and to one another if we hope to enter this city that is to come. Like the wilderness generation, who failed to enter the Promised Land when God told them to, we must “make every effort to enter God’s rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs” (Heb 4:11). The good progress of the community is dependent on our unity. We are called to be united in trusting obedience to God. And this means that we must look out for each other: “Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day” (Heb 3:12-13). We as a church are on the move in obedience to God’s calling, and we must make sure not to leave anyone behind. When we see our friends slipping, it is up to us to pick them up. It is up to us to “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God” (12:15).

We can only fulfill this vision if we commit to one another. This means diving deeper into the church and connecting with our sisters and brothers: try sitting in a new place, try attending a different service than usual, join a Sunday school (if you aren’t in one already), serve in a ministry, attend a social event, etc. We can only watch out for one another if we know one another. None of us can follow Jesus alone. We are all bound together on this journey to the Promised Land, to the city that is to come. Thanks be to God for our community of fellow believers.

 

 

In my daily Bible reading the other day I was reading the story of Gideon in the book of Judges. And I saw something fascinating. Just as a reminder – this story details the suffering that the Midianites were inflicting on Israel as a punishment from God for their unfaithfulness. The occupying army stripped the land of food – they took all the livestock and destroyed the crops. Whenever the Israelites could grow and harvest modest amounts of food, they worked hard to keep their harvest a secret from the Midianites.

In the 6th chapter we find a man named Gideon. He describes himself as the least member of the weakest clan in his tribe. (How is that for a self-image?) Gideon is hiding in the bottom of a winepress, threshing a little wheat so Midianites could not see him.

Here comes the fascinating part. In verses 11-12 an angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said, “Mighty Hero, the Lord is with you.” Then in verse 14, the angel tells him to “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”

I’m sure Gideon looked around to see who the angel was addressing. When he looked at himself, he just saw a coward – a nobody – who was hiding from the enemy. He is pretty honest about his current situation. He reminds the angel of his status within his family and asks how he can possibly do what God expects of him.

But when God looks at us, He doesn’t see who we ARE. He sees who He can make us to be! God saw Gideon as a mighty warrior he could use to rescue His people.

The thing that transformed Gideon from a coward into that mighty warrior was simple. The Lord said to him, “I will be with you.”

God is saying the same thing to us today – both as individuals and as a church.

Let me ask you, when you look at Fee Fee Baptist Church, what do you see? Do you see a church simply trying to hold on through a time of leadership transition? OR do you see a church empowered by the Spirit of God to do mighty things in this community and region. The difference is realizing that God is with us. This is HIS church, and He promises that He will build HIS church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

So, let me challenge you to see Fee Fee Baptist Church from God’s perspective and be encouraged. God says, “I am with you!” And that is more than enough.

 

It’s that time of year again: the flowers are blooming, the bees are buzzing, the birds are nesting … and the weeds are growing. Try as I may, I can’t seem to keep my lawn free of these unwanted dandelions, white clover, and ground ivy, or my woods from honeysuckle, Virginia creeper, and pokeweed. I’ve pulled them by hand, poisoned them, cut them down, and insulted their mothers, but they persist all the same.

Every time I pull weeds or cut down yet another invasive honeysuckle bush, I find myself thinking about the same thing: Sin. Now, this could be the manifestation of my subconscious regret of another wasted Saturday expending time, money, and energy on my losing battle against nature. (Indeed, this is likely partially the case.) But I also think there’s something theological at work. In a perfect world, our grass would remain the perfect length, our veggies and fruits would be bug-free, and our flowers would stand tall. In a perfect world, there would be no weeds.

Weeds are the constant reminder that we live in a fallen world. It goes back to God’s words to Adam in Genesis 3:17-19, where God curses the ground: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” What a pain. It’s all Sin’s fault. That dandelion that magically reappears overnight … blame Sin. That bush honeysuckle that returns even after I cut it down three times before … blame Sin. That poison ivy lurking behind the fence … blame Sin.

Indeed, the results of Sin are everywhere. (Don’t even get me started on mosquitos!) Still, there is hope. Every time we pull weeds, we are reminded of how the whole Earth is moaning for God’s redemption. But we know that the day is coming when we will toil no longer. God in his timing will usher in the new heavens and new Earth when all of creation will be redeemed. We can look forward to the tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2). No more weeds. And, even better, no more pulling weeds – no more toil over the ground. That day is coming. In the meantime, I will keep raising my pokeweed-stained gardening gloves and cry out once again, “Lord Jesus, come quickly!”