Fee Fee Baptist Church

Tag: College

  • College & Outreach – Vol. 62, No. 20

    From New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp

    “All God’s children have been called to the same position. We’ve all been called to be his ambassadors. Remember, the only thing an ambassador does is represent. God’s plan is to make his invisible presence and his invisible grace visible through his people, who incarnate his presence and carry that grace to others. That’s God’s call to every one of his children. There are to be no self-satisfied recipients, no consumers. The body of Christ is designed by God to be an organic, constantly ministering community.

    “If the church is ever going to be this, then God’s people need three things. First, we need vision. We need to be reminded again and again of our place in the work of the Redeemer. Next, we need commitment. We need to be encouraged to make specific and concrete decisions to better position ourselves for the work to which God has called us. Last, we need training. We need to understand what it really looks like to represent the grace of the Redeemer in the lives of the people whom he puts in our paths. We need to be trained not to see those relationships as belonging to us for our happiness, but rather as workrooms in which the Lord can do his transforming work of grace.”

    Brothers and sisters, we are Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20). Have no fear, the Lord is providing vision for this church. Your staff have received vision from the Lord for this church in the days ahead and the men leading in this interim time will care for this body. So be encouraged and commit to this church in this time. Keep your eyes out in the months ahead as we fellowship together and get training as a church body. We will continue to work together to build this church and pursue the good of our community.

  • College & Outreach – Vol. 62, No. 19

    Pray for Our Local College Students

    The school year is back in full swing! Each new fall means new college students at our local universities and new opportunities for young adults to come to saving faith in King Jesus. Please pray for our St. Louis area colleges. Missouri Baptist University and Lindenwood University both are seeing the Spirit move through their students; pray that He would continue His work! Be praying for laborers to go out to our colleges, for the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few (Matt. 9:37-38).

    Impact Week Recap

    The final tally for Impact Week is in — 492.5 hours! Thank you again for your service during Impact Week. We are praying in the weeks to come that this service spread seeds of the Gospel throughout the community, that those seeds would take root, and become a bountiful harvest for the kingdom. Continue praying and pursuing the good of your community with the love of Christ.

     

    Finally, I want to encourage you as you may feel weary, turn to your Savior. Matthew 11:25-30 reminds us that Jesus Christ oversees all things and will give us rest. As you work this week, remember that your work is done primarily to glorify God. Secondarily, your work is designed to proclaim who God is and encourage others to seek after God themselves. Provision for your family is not the primary reason we should be working! Our reason for being, our life’s purpose as believers, is to glorify God through our work. If there is breath in your lungs, the Lord asks that you work for Him, and He will provide your rest. So work, brothers, and sisters; work for the Lord and not for men.

  • College & Outreach – Vol. 62, No. 17

    “If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless, and he deceives himself,” (James 1:26).

    An uncontrolled tongue is often the source of conflict between people. A mother’s critique of her daughter’s clothing choice causes bitterness to brew between them. A coworker’s harsh evaluation of your performance stirs division among your department. When an outfielder drops the third pop fly that game, a coach’s unbridled tongue can destroy the player’s confidence and love for the game.

    Later in this letter, James instructs the church to “consider ships: Though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things” (James 3:4-5a). Like a spark that sets the forest ablaze, an uncontrolled tongue will reap havoc on your life.

    What hope is there for the believer? “If my tongue is an uncontrolled fire, then what can I do?” First, pray to the God of all language to bridle your tongue and direct you in what to say. As you think and say things that tear others down, confess to the God who forgives and endeavor to only speak words that raise up others. Second, listen far more than you speak. Common sense tells us that the body has two ears and one mouth, so we listen twice as much as we speak. If your tongue is running wild, keep it contained within your mouth and use your ears instead.

    I wish to echo the author, that “with the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way” (James 3:9-10-). As we honor God with our tongues, we will be quick to see people around us as his image-bearers. How can I bless God and yet curse man made in his likeness? May it not be so among his people.

  • College & Outreach – Vol. 62, No. 12

    But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me,” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

    The Apostle Paul would have had good reason to boast in his own abilities. A faithful Jew before his conversion, Paul knew the Law and Prophets like the back of his hand. Paul followed the law as best he could, dotting his I’s and crossing his T’s. Even his persecution of early Christians was believed to be faithful to the Scriptures as the Jews understood them. Upon his Damascus Road experience, Saul became Paul and lived a life devoted to Jesus Christ and the spread of his Gospel. Virtually every church in the East had Paul’s fingerprints in their founding. Nearly two-thirds of our New Testament was authored by the Apostle. So why is it this man who chooses not to boast in his own deeds for God?

    Because Jesus Christ was far better! The human Paul pales in comparison to the Godman that is Jesus. In verse 8, we see that Paul is afflicted with a “thorn in the flesh,” so that he would not revel in his own deeds but fully rely on Christ. Consider your thorn in the flesh, that sin you just can’t seem to shake. We all have them, no one is immune to a “speck in their eye.” I’ve lived most of my life as a perfectionist, never satisfied with my work and always striving for better. I know my weaknesses and they haunt me almost daily. Maybe some of you relate to my “thorn in the flesh.”

    What are we to do? Consider Paul’s response: “So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10, emphasis added). When we are made weak, that is when God’s grace shines brightest in our lives. Confess sins, admit your weaknesses; step out in faith and be made strong in the grace of God. I pray you will join me in boasting in the sufficient grace for you, for God’s power made perfect in weakness.