Now Is The Time

THE LORD ADDED TO HIS CHURCH

Acts 2:47 begins “And the Lord added to His church…” What a wonderful feeling it is when the Lord sees fit to grace us with new families in the church. This past Sunday night we hosted Class 101: Discovering Membership at JIBC. We had 15 who attended and 12, so far, who felt led to join with us. Others may join as they pray through and get a confirming word from the Lord. Think about that for just a moment. We had 12 adults who felt led to unite with this church family. Between them they had 13 children. Several of them will be baptized in the coming weeks. Several will have children dedicated soon. Good Lord willing, many of their children and teenagers will come to know the Lord and become followers of Jesus. Oh what a blessing from God. Because we are growing, we can sometimes lose the wonder of God’s grace when He adds to His church. Children and teens that can be reached before they have to be rescued; families coming together to study God’s word; finding a place of love and acceptance. It is a story of God’s grace, each and every one of them. To God be the glory!


NOW IS THE TIME…

Did you take typing in high school? Among the first lines we learned to type: “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country”. Now is the time for all our members to come to the aid of a major outreach effort. If you have been through Class 101 with me, you know our strategy of who we are trying to reach. It is the five circles starting from the outside and work in. We start with the COMMUNITY. We try to find ways to intersect with their lives and the things they value. You know…find an itch and then scratch it. Families love big, fun events for their kids. For JIBC it won’t get much bigger or “funner” than our Easter Egg Drop on Saturday, March 19. Sean said it correctly: the Easter Egg Drop is designed to be like our successful Fall Festival on steroids. If all we did was to put on a fantastic program for families, it would still be worth doing. In our case, we are praying and working to move them from the COMMUNITY Circle to the CROWD…those families who attend church on special occasions like Easter and Christmas. Once they attend worship at JIBC, we hope they will feel welcomed, hear great music, an inspiring Word, have their kids blessed in All Stars, etc. Then as God leads, they will be invited to our next Class 101: Discovering Membership at JIBC…conveniently timed for two weeks after Easter. So they move from the COMMUNITY to the CROWD to the CHURCH to those COMMITTED to becoming like Jesus. The goal being to lead them to a relationship with Christ and membership in His family so they may become fully devoted followers of Christ.

Listen, if you have a better plan that’s working…let me know. But this is the one we are working. The Lord is blessing. Come on and be a part of this. Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of the mission…to reach, redeem and restore a lost and broken world.

Pastor Tom

TAKE YOUR PICK…BLESSINGS ARE ALL AROUND

I really do believe that a blessed person has options. I want to list a few of the “additional” options you have for blessings. I say additional, because you have ongoing sources of blessing in your Connection Group, Weekly Worship, daily time with God, etc. Here are a few coming up that could make a difference. Of course they take some effort on our part. Look over the options and see if God may be providing an answer to prayers you have been praying or relief from a pain you have been experiencing. Either way, a blessed person has options!

This Saturday our Experiencing God group is leading a walk through the Riverland Terrace neighborhood. Walk you dogs or a walk with the family. Either one or both. As you walk, pray for what you see and ask God to show you what He sees. This is not so much a church wide event as it may be an event God has somehow, in His mysterious way, put on your heart. Meet at JIBC Fellowship Hall at 9:30 a.m. this Saturday, February 20. Walking, praying family fellowship…hmm?

This Sunday, pray for Class 101: Discovering Membership. We have 20 signed up. That is 20 wonderful precious souls our Father may be leading to unite their family with ours. I really do believe God adds to the church those that He wills. So let’s pray with them about this next step at JIBC.

How about your language…your love language that is? Saturday, February 27 will be our 5 Love Languages gathering. We have 50 signed up so far. Hey, by the way, you don’t have to be a couple to benefit from this. Knowing your love language will help single people, single moms or single dads, etc. Whenever I meet with a couple planning to get married, this book, The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, is one of the three books I recommend. Need a tune up? Things going good but could be a little better…let’s give it a try. A blessed person has options. Call the church office to make your reservation or sign up this Sunday.

Just around the corner is our church wide blood drive. Our friends from the American Red Cross will be at JIBC on Sunday, March 6 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Janie and I will be out of town that Sunday, so we will make a special effort to donate the week before. Our family has been blessed more than once as we needed blood. My grandson, Wyatt, is here by the grace of God, the will of his mother, the love of his father, the prayers of our friends and the gift of life given through the Red Cross. Thank you for donating. It was the difference of life.

See you Sunday as we get Jonah in the belly of the big fish! Now he is Running To God.

Pastor Tom

Jonah: A Story of Grace

This past Sunday we started a series on the Old Testament Book of Jonah. It started off with a great message introducing Jonah and the great city of Nineveh. Jonah thought he could run from God and his responsibilities. Not so much. Psalm139 reminds us that we cannot find a cruise anywhere that God is not already there. And when we do run…He is fully capable of getting our attention in the most creative of ways. Perhaps it will not be in the belly of a great fish. It could be…but hopefully it will not be.

So I am encouraging our church family to spend some time reading and re-reading this great Old Testament Book of Jonah. I do believe Jonah was a real man swallowed by a real fish…a really big fish. I have no trouble believing the God who created the Heavens and the earth could also create a fish capable of putting up with a disobedient prophet for three days! So how is this God’s message for His church today? How is this message for your Connection Group? And more to the point, how is this a message from God’s heart to yours?

Jonah 1:1 starts with “The Word of the LORD came to Jonah”. This was the first evidence of God’s amazing grace in this story. Who is Jonah, and who are we, that Almighty God would take the time to speak a word to us? What grace and what love. We have a Father in heaven that the Bible describes as our friend; a Shepherd to His sheep; a lover of our souls. We have a Father who loved broken humanity so much that He sent His only Son to reach, redeem and restore a lost and broken world. To give wicked Nineveh a chance to repent, to change their thinking about God is an amazing display of grace. This is a story of God’s grace to Jonah, to Nineveh and to the people of Israel. It is also a story of grace for you and me, JIBC, your connection group. Seek the Word of God. Let the Word of God come to you as it did to Jonah…just don’t run! Where could you run from His presence?

See you Sunday…good Lord willing.

Pastor Tom

LEVERAGE YOUR INFLUENCE

Sunday I finished the series “ALL IN”.
We ended with a Celebration of Communion remembering what God has done for us through His Son, our Lord Jesus. I wanted to give some sort of guide by which we could begin to measure what being ALL IN looks like at JIBC. The only part I want to mention today relates to our reaching out and making a difference. How can you be salt and light in your family, neighborhood and community? How can you make a difference across the street, across the river or across the ocean? I want to encourage you to leverage the influence that you have.

Check out the story of Moses in Exodus 3. God asked Moses to go back to Egypt, confront Pharaoh and lead the Children of Israel to the Promised Land. “Let my people go” was to be the message

from Moses. Understandably fearful, Moses questioned God on several fronts. God asked Moses, “What is that in your hand?” It was his shepherd’s staff. God used that plain and simple staff to send a powerful message. So, what is that in your hand, in your ability, in your wheelhouse? The ability to talk wallpaper off a wall; a passion for a sport; the ability to listen to the broken stories of people you don’t even know; the ability to make money or the wisdom of how to budget it. On and on and on we could go. I am praying that we will allow God to use what He Himself has placed into our hands and abilities. Leverage your influence on boards, in civic organizations, on your teams. Make a difference.

The most important event in the Old Testament is the Passover and the Exodus. Of course, Moses is the one God used to make it happen. But before Moses, there was a big sister, Miriam, who carefully watched over baby Moses as he floated down the Nile River to be intercepted by Pharaoh’s daughter. But before Moses and before Miriam, there was a midwife who rescued Moses from an aborted life. Ordered by Pharaoh to murder all the Hebrew boys born at this time, this heroic midwife refused. She delivered the Hebrew boy who was later named Moses. She leveraged her influence, her skill and ability. Eternity will count her as one of the greatest missionaries ever…who may have felt like she was just doing her job.

All in …All Jesus…All the Time. God did it, God gets the glory. He chose to do it through men and women who leveraged their influence to join Him in His work to reach, redeem and restore a lost and broken world.

Pastor Tom

Our next teaching series will be the Old Testament book of Jonah! It is hard to keep a good man down!