What a great joy it has been to walk through the gospel of Mark with you all recently. We have almost completed six chapters, and God is using this action-packed gospel to teach us and form us! I encourage you to continue to read it, over and over. It is especially helpful to read over the upcoming passage in advance. I will keep you up to date each week in this column on what passages we will be covering.

This Sunday is going to be a special treat, as we welcome Scott Zeller to the pulpit at First Baptist. Scott serves as a pastor in Dubai, and he is right in the middle of a very strategic work of God in the Middle East. This is going to be a Sunday of dreaming and envisioning. How can we be a part of gospel advance to people who live in the 10/40 window, the most unreached place on earth?

We hear of many bad things that are happening in the Middle East. We hear about the persecution of our brothers and sisters in Christ there. That is true. But the reason the devil is attacking the Christians there is that the gospel is advancing there. Scott will share some incredible things with us this Sunday, in both our morning and evening services. You won’t want to miss it.

Speaking of missions, please remember to lift up our Haiti team to the Lord in your prayers this week. Pray for fruit to come from this trip – fruit that will remain. Pray for that fruit to be brought forth in the lives of the people they are working with, and the lives of the team members themselves.

And also lift up our Worship Pastor, Michael Turner, this week. As we announced on Sunday, Michael learned on Saturday night that his father, Willie, went home to be with the Lord. Pray for Michael, his mother, Martha, and his whole family. His dad knew Christ and is with him now. The same is true for David Edgell’s dad, who also went home to be with Christ recently. Continue to keep David and his family in your prayers as well.

Aren’t you thankful for the gospel? Aren’t you thankful for the way our grief is tempered by hope, because of Christ’s defeat of death? We serve a risen Savior…and that changes everything.

See you this Sunday!

Dr. Thurman Hayes, Jr.