Dear Church Family,
I hope this letter finds you blessed and in health. Somehow, I don’t think the person that coined the phrase “April showers bring May flowers” lived in West Texas. In spite of the lack of showers, little green buds are starting to appear on the trees. Some of the grass is beginning to turn green and weeds are bursting from the ground with determined vigor. I wish grass and garden plants were as healthy and tenacious as the weeds. I have actually wished, spiritually speaking, we could combine the tenacity of the weeds with the usefulness of the wheat. I have to fight every day to grow spiritually. It is so easy to get distracted, busy, or just lazy and let things slide. I’m sure many can relate. I can go out and stomp on the weeds, I can refuse to put water on them, kick them, whack them with weed eaters even pull them up or poison them. Somehow, if I do manage to knock them out for a few months or a year, they are right back the next month or next year.
Paul talks about the kind of persistence Christ has, and that we are to have in Christ. Romans 8:35-37, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” What a great challenge!
This is the kind of persistence I want. No matter what the world, or perhaps another Christian, does to us or says about us, no matter what troubles or trials come, nothing will prevent us from holding fast to where God has planted us. Not just holding fast but conquering and growing! Let us cling to, and display, the wonderful character of Jesus with vigor and tenacity.
I must share a very exciting announcement. On March 18 we closed on the sale of our 98th street property for the net amount of $200,078.67. On Sunday, March 31, the church in Business Session voted to apply the proceeds from that sale (plus just a little extra) to pay off our church mortgage of $200,821.82! As of April 1, no it is not an April fool’s joke, the Lubbock Seventh-day Adventist Church is debt free! Praise the Lord! Later this year we will have a special service to officially burn the “debt” (mortgage note) and we would like to invite all to attend. It is scheduled for August 17, 2013. We will share more details as the date approaches.
Please make a note of these upcoming events:
Beginning Wednesday, April 10, our midweek service will be the presentation of a 10 part seminar titled “The Distraction Dilemma.” Please join us at 7pm each Wednesday night in the church conference center. I can’t encourage you enough to attend each session. You will learn and see things that will be a help and blessing to you for the rest of your life.
ABC Bookmobile will be here on Monday, April 29, from 4:30-6:00pm in the Church Parking Lot. Orders will be assured if preordered before April 22. Should you pre-order and find yourself short of cash on delivery day we have been assured that you will not be under obligation to take it. Pre-order by calling 1-800-522-2665.
More blessings await you in the April 11:00 o’clock Sabbath Worship Hour Schedule: Sabbath, April 6, we are going to look at an absolutely fascinating topic about how our minds work. The title is, “Ears Plugged and Eyes Shut.” Have you ever heard the saying, “putting your head in the sand?” Can closing your eyes, or plugging your ears so that you don’t see something bad ever do any good?
April 13, the message title will be “No Death and No Taxes.” People say the two things you can’t avoid in life are death and taxes, but there is a country and a city where that saying is not valid. If those were the only things recommending this place, I would be extremely interested in living there. There is much more.
On Sabbath April 20, the title of the message is “Beautiful.” What is the secret to beauty? The world spends billions of dollars and countless hours in the pursuit of beauty each year, I think we should spend a little time talking about it on Sabbath morning.
Sabbath, April 27, Lubbock Junior Academy students will be presenting the church service. Their theme for the service will be Creation. I encourage you to join us in support of our school and our youth! I’m sure we will be blessed.
Please pray for me as I pray for you!
God’s richest blessings,
Pastor Jeremy
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