Sabbatismos

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." ~ Phil. 4:4-7

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" ~ Eph. 3:17b-19.

"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus" ~ Eph. 2:4-7..

"All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall. So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin" ~ Rom. 14:20b-23.

"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law." ~ Rom. 13:8

"Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever." ~ Ps. 125:1.

"I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber...." ~ Ps. 121:1-3.

"Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life." ~ Ps. 42:7-8

"Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. He says, 'Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth'" ~ Ps. 46:8-10, NIV.

"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God" ~ Ps. 40:1-3a.

I'm blessed beyond my ability to express. The past couple of years haven't been easy, but God is so good! He calls us to live by His Spirit in the vertical (spiritual reality) rather than the horizontal (this world). That doesn't mean we ignore the facts of daily life, or that we ignore the people God has called us love and serve, but our reality must be in our vertical relationship to our Creator. Here is a link to my latest sermon, "Lives of Thanksgiving." http://fbcjamestown.com/listen/

Listen | First Baptist Church

"Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
your justice like the great deep." ~ Ps. 36:5-6a

"Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy. For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love." ~ Ps. 33-1-5

"For the word of the Lord is right and true;
he is faithful in all he does.
The Lord loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love." ~ Ps. 33:4-5

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love
surrounds the one who trusts in him." ~ Ps. 32:8-10

"Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." ~ Gal. 6:2

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law" ~ Gal. 5:22-23.

"Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman....

"These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar....

"But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son...." ~ Condensed version of Gal. 4:21-30, NIV.

"Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian" ~ Gal. 3:23-25.

"For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” ~ Gal. 2:19-21.

"Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ" ~ Gal. 1:10, NIV).

"For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" ~ Gal. 3:27, ESV.

Live by faith & love, not by fear!

"Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord." ~ Ps. 117:1-2.

"The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. The Lord protects the unwary; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you." ~ Ps. 116:5-7, NIV.

"May those who delight in my vindication
shout for joy and gladness;
may they always say, 'The Lord be exalted,
who delights in the well-being of his servant.'" ~ Ps. 35:27.

"After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: 'Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great pr******te who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.' And again they shouted: 'Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.'" ~ Rev. 19:1-3, NIV.

Here is a link for my latest sermon entitled "Extreme Makeover, Divine Edition" ~ http://fbcjamestown.com/listen/

Listen | First Baptist Church

"Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised." ~ Ps. 113:2-3

"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory." ~ Eph. 1:13-14.