All-In 2010 has really been amazing. God is at work at SRPC…. I feel tremors of the Spirit’s presence. Consider these testimonies:
“Since we came to 7 Rivers as non Christians 10 years ago, our entire family has become more and more involved in the 7 Rivers community – our kids go to school here, we’re members of small groups, and our family has gone on mission trips. We believe in what’s going on here. While we’ve become more and more involved at 7 Rivers, we also lost everything over the last few years due to a really bad land deal that I thought was a good idea. But we continued to give – I can boil down the reason why we continued to give, from my perspective this way – either God provides everything, including all that we need – or He doesn’t. I believe that He does.”
“We live mostly on a fixed income and when SR25 started, we weren’t sure that we could afford to increase our giving but decided to give it a try. That “try” is an obligation and we have never come up short on our budget. Besides, it’s not our money.”
“I’ve been justifying that tithing is not possible because of the financial difficulties of that past few years. Our income has been such that we have not even made enough to pay our daughters tuition the past few years and have been living off the savings that we have been blessed to accumulate over the years of our marriage including college funds, IRA’s, basic savings, etc…. That is all gone now as God has stripped away our security that we placed in our finances. This is where my heart was convicted last weekend. It struck me that while we have significantly cut back on things, we still have found the money to eat out probably more than we should. Instead of taking a vacation maybe just some weekends here and there, I’ve had no problem finding the money for gym memberships and all that goes with that, and even found the money to see the Bucs play when I wanted to. I could go on! I know that these things in and of themselves are not wrong, but what God revealed to me was that I felt an entitlement to these things because times are tough and that it was my money and I earned it and saved it. How selfish!! I’ve had to confess my sin of selfishness and lack of faith that He will provide and that I can give in spite of these tough times. So all that being said, we are going all in on the SR25 campaign. We will be one of the (new) contributors this time around. I can’t wait to see what God will do, not financially, but spiritually as He teaches me how to trust Him more.”
• This weekend at both worship services I’ll ask our members and regular attenders to fill out and turn in a commitment card. Your commitment options are to recommit to your SR25 commitment you made in March of 2009, or alter that commitment, or become a first time participant in this campaign. Either way we want everyone to participate in the joy of funding the mission God has given us!
• After both worship services this weekend – we’ll have dinner together in the gym. There will be no cost for this feast! Should be an awesome weekend.
• Two Sunday morning worship services (9:00 & 10:50) will resume on January 2 and continue through April!
• SRPC (and SRCS) raises kids who care about the world. This summer, college students Amy Green and Katie Bennett are interning in Japan with the church planting team there. SRPC students have gone to China, Mongolia, Cambodia, Uganda, Kenya, Mexico, and Ireland and have done summer ministry domestically at Camp Barnabas, at New Song Church in Harlem and as youth interns in various PCA churches. Parents, don’t wait for your kids to take the initiative – ask if they’d want to pursue an internship and if you could help. World Harvest (whm.org) and MTW (mtw.org) both have great internship opportunities in England, Austria, Czech Republic, Ireland, Uganda, Peru, Honduras, Taiwan and numerous other locales!
• Need a great prayer reminder for today – ask God to do gentle gospel surgery on you!
“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Philippians 4:5
Dear Lord Jesus, there’s no one more gentle with me than you. There’s no one as welcoming of sinners… kind to the broken… or understanding of the struggling as you. Gentle, yet persistent… gentle, yet firm … gentle, yet so very powerful. You’re like the perfect surgeon—the one I want working on me. You never get nervous, flustered, agitated, or quick. You have a steady hand because of your steady heart. O, how I need you to do ongoing gospel surgery on me if I’m going to be a true gentle-man—someone whose gentleness is evident to all, and not just evident to the people that are easy for me to be with. …Gentle me when I’m behind slow drivers who stay in the fast lane. Gentle me when I face both fair and unfair criticism. Gentle me when I think things that are obvious to me ought to be just as obvious to everybody else. Gentle me when loud boorish people invade “my space”—as though I have some inalienable right to a non-interrupted life. …Gentle me when I’m too tired to engage, but my wife really needs me to listen. Gentle me when I need a nap but my grandson needs to play. Gentle me when someone gets the last cookie I was planning on throwing down with a cold glass of milk. Gentle me when I want to make things right, but can’t. Gentle me when the vacation gets cut short by crises. Gentle me when friends keep making the same mistakes and foolish choices. Gentle me when the restaurant sends me home with the wrong takeout order. Gentle me when Satan starts condemning me for things I actually did, but things for which you already paid my debt. …Gentle me when I start debating theology rather than loving the people who see things differently. Gentle me when it gets too cold and rainy to run, disrupting my plans. Gentle me when I cannot fix the very people you never gave me to fix. Gentle me when staying angry would feel a lot more like power and control. …Jesus, you are so near to us in the gospel, in fact, you live in our hearts. You’re also “near” in terms of coming back to finish making all things new. May your nearness generate a much quicker repentance on my part. Make me a gentle-man by the gospel and for your glory.”
• Upcoming dates
Dec. 18/19 – Bethlehem Village
Dec. 24 – Christmas Eve Worship 3:00, 5:00, 7:00
Dec. 25, Jan. 1 – No Saturday church
Jan. 2 – Two Sunday services begin
Jan. 8/9 – Chad Robison begins
Jan. 16 – MLK Community Worship Service
Dec. 24 – Christmas Eve Worship 3:00, 5:00, 7:00
Dec. 25, Jan. 1 – No Saturday church
Jan. 2 – Two Sunday services begin
Jan. 8/9 – Chad Robison begins
Jan. 16 – MLK Community Worship Service
• I’ll be preaching this weekend on Acts 8. Pray and discuss with your spouse your All-In 2010 commitment. Bring a heart hungry for Jesus and a belly hungry for post-worship fried chicken!
Love,
Ray
