Pastor's Letter 5.9.23
Check out Pastor's letter of encouragement to the Lincoln Baptist Church.
Dear Church,
Good morning, spring is definitely here and warmer temperatures appear to be present to stay. I believe we had a wonderful start to our spring campaign. This past week we knicked on 209 doors and saw fourteen souls saved with one of those, Brother Justin, making the decision to follow the Lord in baptism this past Sunday Night. We had a solid starting attendance of 143 with six visitors despite the menacing marathon on Sunday morning. We did truly have a good week, but we cannot rest there, we still have much work to do
In my personal devotions, I did a study of the word "affection". The word affection is found only six times in Scripture and can be defined as attention given with love and passion driven towards someone or something so much so that it has an effect on us. The Scriptures tell us that David set his affection toward the house of God. Titus had an inward affection toward the church of Corinth. God commanded through the pen of Paul that we should set our affection on things above not on things of this earth. In light of this study, I had to have a personal review and ask myself what is it that I give my affection to. What we allow ourselves to think about is what we will desire. What we desire is what we will have affection for. What we have an affection for, by definition will affect us.
God has given every person a spirit. This spirit acts as a gage for the heart. "The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly." (Proverbs 20:27) The first sign that our affection is not where it needs to be is found in our spirit. It is the gauge that alerts us that all is not as it should be. We become irritable or even somewhat irrational in our spirit because we are not aligned as we should be with our affection set on things above. The Christian who is not setting his affection on things above will have a hard time being happy because he knows he is out of place. May we, as children of God, determine to set our affection on the things of God, on the house of God, and on the people of God so that we might find true joy in our Christian life.
We are preparing for another spectacular week here at Lincoln Baptist Church. This Sunday is a doubleheader in that as the second week of our campaign it is "Cattle Drive" Sunday, but it is also Mother's Day. We will be honoring our mothers in the morning service. We must never take for granted the old saying, "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." There is a tremendous amount of power in being a mother, may it be used to glorify God.
I am looking forward to seeing all of you on Sunday at church. If I can do anything for you, or if you need prayer for any particular situation you are facing please do not hesitate to reach out. May the Lord bless the rest of your day!
Pastor Jonathan Painter
Lincoln Baptist Church