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Spiritual Development - December 2019

                                       Persevere in the New Year!

Over the last few weeks, we have listened to sermons from the book of Hebrews and have encountered the repeated themes of perseverance and maturity. These are themes that relate to every Christian at every stage of maturity. We all must keep our focus on Christ by persevering in faith until the end of our lives (Heb. 3:14, 5:9). That can seem like a lot of pressure if we don’t also acknowledge that God is actively preserving the faith of His children as they persevere (John 10:27-28; Rom. 8:38-39; 1 Pet. 1:5; Phil. 1:6). Because Jesus is our Sabbath rest (Heb. 4:9-11) we can trust that the perfect work of Christ has secured our place in the rest that only God can give.
 
But as we are resting in Christ, we must also grow up into Christ (Eph. 4:15), abide in Christ (John 15:5), and sacrifice for the sake of Christ (Rom. 12:1-2). We do this because we now love our Savior more than we love ourselves. Many times, however, we find ourselves lacking in our demonstrations of love to our Savior. Maybe your affections for God have grown cold as of late. Or maybe you are in the strongest state of spiritual assurance you have ever been. Regardless of where you might find yourself, the advice of Scripture is the same for all of us this next year:

 Persevere!

But how? The principles of persevering in faith have not Changed since the founding of the church. The process is summarized in Matt. 16:24-26: “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” We must deny ourselves, be willing to suffer for Jesus’ sake, and follow Him wherever He leads you to go. Easier said than done, right? But this way of living leads to our greatest possible delight. We were created to worship God in all aspects of our life, to have fellowship with Him, and to reflect His glory in all creation. Our purpose in this life is to be faithful to Jesus above anyone or anything else, no matter what the cost.

But  what does this practically look like? In this new year, you will have 1,440 minutes every day. If you started giving 1% of your day exclusively to time spent with God, you would spend almost 15 minutes each day in time alone with God. I don’t know of many other areas of our life where we think of a 1% increase as unreasonable. So work to prioritize at least 1% of every day to time spent alone with God, and increase it over time. What will you do in this time? Begin writing down prayer requests and people that you need to share the gospel with and use this time to pray for them. Find a Bible reading plan for the new year. Spend time reflecting on the ways that you specifically need to grow in your godliness and find Scripture that encourages you to grow in those areas. Review the text from the Sunday sermon and ask God to help you apply to your life what was preached . If you begin incorporating these spiritual disciplines into the rhythm of your day, you will quickly find that 1% is definitely attainable. So, make it your goal to persevere this new year!

Recommended Resource— CSB Day-by-Day Chronological Bible -Many people are unfamiliar with the stories of the Bible and how they fit together into the grand narrative of God's Word. God gave us the Bible to reveal great truth about himself and about our lives, and he wants to draw us into the ongoing story of what he is doing in the world. The CSB Day-by-Day Chronological Bible features a clear narrative approach to the Bible, arranging the complete text into a fresh chronological reading plan with daily readings guided by Dr. George Guthrie.

Ideal for daily Bible study or reading, this chronological study Bible is thoughtfully arranged so readers can track the story of Scripture, day-by-day, from beginning to end, and understand the flow of events and how the grand narrative of Scripture applies to everyday life. My family and I will be using this Bible in 2020 for our annual reading plan. Consider joining us in using this resource to know God and His Word more faithfully in this upcoming year. I pray it is a blessing to you. This reading plan can also be found online at csbible.com/read-the-csb/reading-plans/

Women on Mission -December 2019

                                     Who is this Lottie Moon, anyway?                                                                        
Charlotte Diggs Moon, 1840-1910, better known as Lottie Moon, became a legend in her own time.  A daughter of old Virginia and one of the best educated women in the South, Miss Moon was petite 4 feet 3 inches.  Her voice is described as deep, rich, gentle, musical, which she used skillfully as a teacher/missionary.  But no photographer ever captured on film the animated, attractive, charming, delightful, energetic, fearless Lottie Moon, although a few photos do exist.

For 40 years she represented Southern Baptists in China.  Again and again she wrote back to America, “Send on the               missionaries.”  Once she wrote, “It is odd that the million Baptists of the South can furnish only three men for all China.  I wonder how this looks in heaven.  It certainty looks queer in China.”

After the Japanese-Russian war, economic conditions in China produced much poverty, but there were some new missionaries.  Miss Moon welcomed them, advised them, mothered them, and loved their children, who adored her in  return.  The Chinese women and children came and went in her home as if it were their own.  If the Pingtu Christians were starving, Miss Moon would not eat.  By December of her seventieth year she was so frail the doctors sent her back to the States.  But enroute on Christmas Eve, while the ship rode at anchor in Kobe, Japan, Miss Moon died.  The memory of such a life never ends.
In 1918, Annie Armstrong, the woman who refused marriage to a China missionary so she could fulfill her calling as the leader of mission support among Southern Baptist women in the homeland, wrote: “Miss Moon is the one who suggested the Christmas offering for foreign missions.  She showed us the way in so many things.  Wouldn’t it be appropriate to name the offering in her memory?”* And so it was.
                                                                        
                            The Most Persecuted People in the World
Named “the most persecuted people in the world” by the United Nations, more than 723,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh from their homes in Myanmar (Also called Burma). An additional 100,000 remain in Myanmar living in IDP (internally displaced people) camps.

The Rohingya have been stripped of their homes, their citizenship and their rights. Living as illegal aliens in camps built on land annually destroyed by floods, these people have nothing - no education, no health care, no income, no land, no assets and, seemingly, no allies.

International Mission Study: Rohingya will introduce you to the Christian organizations who are working as the hands and feet of Christ among the Rohingya. From delivering buckets of hygiene supplies to planting grass to sharing words of hope, followers of Christ are engaging this crisis head-on. Through this study, you will a) identify with feelings experienced by Rohingya refugees; b) discover how to pray specifically for refugees; c) explore how to accept people who are different from you; d) learn ways you and your church can give through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, Baptist Global Response and the WMU Foundation. We pray this study would inspire you to reach out in love to refugees and other displaced people groups in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Our study is Wednesday, December 11th at noon in the fellowship hall. Please join us if you can.

Our Lottie Moon Christmas offering goal is $18,000. Offering envelopes will be made available to each family. Women on      Mission will meet at 6:00 pm on Monday, December 9th at the home of Jean Hitchcock for a Week of Prayer program. We will  carpool from the church leaving at 5:45 pm. We collected 1,180 boxes of mac and cheese for the Evansville Rescue Mission. Thanks you to all who made this possible.

*Excerpts from The Lottie Moon Story.