Hey FBC Family, 

I am praying that you are staying spiritually and physically healthy during these difficult days.  God’s Word tells us that trials can actually be times of incredible growth…a time when God does a new thing in us.  He says “Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming.  Do you not see it?  Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19).  

This time may feel like a desert to you.  But may our God make it a place of springs, where his living water flows in us and through us!  He loves you, and your brothers and sisters in Christ love you.  We will worship together again physically in our sanctuary, and eventually we will worship together in the new heaven and earth, with glorified bodies, forever.  In the meantime, let’s pray that God will use this COVID-19 trial to shape and form us into the image of Christ, pouring out his Spirit upon us, and doing a new thing in us.  

This Sunday we are going to get back to our series on the Sermon on the Mount, A New Way Of Life. We’ll pick back up where we left off in March, at the beginning of Matthew 7.  We’ll look at Matthew 7:1-6, and talk about “Getting The Beam Out Of Your Eye.”   

This is a funny text.  Jesus often used humor in his teaching.  But it is also a humbling text.  He is talking about a sin which all of us are subject to lapsing into, namely a critical, fault-finding spirit.  If we will apply what Jesus is speaking about in this text, it will dramatically improve our relationship with God and our relationships with others.  

This is also a text that drives us to the gospel.  How do we kill off our tendency to ignore our own sins while looking for the sins in others?  We kill it off through the gospel, by meditating on the amazing grace of God that we have received.  That’s how we learn to treat others with grace.  

So let’s talk about these things on Sunday.  My sermon is typically posted by 7am.  Wake up, turn on your computer, open your Bible, pray, and get into the Word.  Then, if you are on social media, post it and share it with your friends.  

If you don’t use a computer and need DVDs of any of the sermons, our office will be happy to mail them to you.  We make fresh ones every week, and we have plenty!  

Thanks for your faithfulness, church family.  This thing will pass.  But God’s love will never pass.  

Love in Christ,  

Pastor Thurman