PRAYING FOR UKRAINE

 What a mess! What a terrible, awful mess!

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.” James 4:1-2

Let us join together and pray for our Father in Heaven to intervene in such a way as to end this horrific war and end it in a way that would give Him all the glory. May the cease fire come, not as a result of surrender, but as a result of an Act of God that cannot be explained by human reasoning or explanation. Our Father can part the seas, cause the ground to open up and swallow rebels, foiled the plans of enemies who greatly outnumbered your people. Dear Father in Heaven, do it again.

We also ask Your protection for those fleeing and for those helping them to flee; for those who are feeding, housing and providing medical care and comfort. We pray for Your Church family who valiantly are sharing the Gospel and living the Gospel in horrific circumstances. We pray for those in authority to have their minds filled with your wisdom; give them courage to make the right decisions; remove pride and fear and replace it with humility and faith. Again, we ask that you would do the miracle and multiply the dwindling supply of fish and loaves. Feed the thousands and hundreds of thousands. May those who go to help find favor with You and with man. Open closed doors.

We ask this, and all things, in the Name Above All Names, the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen and amen.

Blessed to be a Blessing!

“But since you excel in everything-in faith, in speech, in knowledge, 

in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you-- 

see that you also excel in this grace of giving.”

2 Corinthians 8:7

We at JIBC have used that phrase a lot over the years. It is like a truism, a mantra, a value, almost a mission statement. We are blessed to be a blessing. I suspect that there are more of our members who feel that way than those who do not. It has been a growing grace of our church family. I believe our church family has excelled in love. I am not aware of any church that more consistently reaches out and loves on those who are broken and bruised by life. I think you do excel in love. I think you have often excelled in faith, willing to take on missions and ministries that were obviously beyond our pay grade! And I think, as a church family, we have excelled in the grace of giving.

Just recently we were able to send offerings to SendRelief, the Southern Baptist team that responds to any sort of disaster, whether it is man-made or natural. We sent offerings to Samaritans Purse who will be on the ground in Ukraine with food and medical teams. Then we also were able to send offerings to two contacts in Ukraine. These two, a pastor and a ministry leader, are on the ground, the bombed ground of their country. I am so thankful that we could send them funds to help their relief efforts.

We are now getting ready to send offerings to our mission partners in Romania. The city of Campulung is not near to the border of Russia, but they are near to the heart of God. Two of our ministry partners are helping refugees. So, we will help them. Why? Because we have been blessed to be a blessing.

You generous giving this past year put us in a great position to bless those in harm’s way. It started in December of 2020 when your offerings were able to bless the Afghan refugees, the earthquake victims in Haiti, the Hurricane victims in Louisiana and to help purchase water purification systems for Haiti. That, by the way, does not count offerings sent to our traditional missions partners like Lottie Moon, the co-operative program, Charleston Baptist Association, James Island Outreach, etc.

My prayer is that we will continue to abound in the grace of giving and with the belief that we are blessed to be a blessing. I pray that we will be good stewards, great managers, of all our Father has entrusted to JIBC.

Let’s continue to excel in love and mercy. That is God like. Jesus affirmed the Pharisees for their willingness and commitment to tithe. He also reminded them not to neglect the greater things…like justice, mercy and love. You are blessed to be a blessing. Let’s excel in faith, speech, love and the grace of giving.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing!

Pastor Tom

PRAYING FOR UKRAINE

It is like watching a horrible movie with the major exception…it is real life, it is no movie. I find myself going to FOX news on a more regular basis to hear the latest update, hoping and praying for some kind of resolution between Putin and Ukraine. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have our wonderful City of Charleston indiscriminately bombed and destroyed. The loss of life on both sides is horrific.

What can we do? You know. The #1 request from those who are closest to the war is prayer. We have put out two prayer guides that will help you know how to pray. Pray for world leaders, pray for provisions of food and water, pray for the children, pray for medical care, pray for the local churches in Ukraine. Pray and pray and pray. We have already sent funds to SendRelief.com, Samaritans Purse & Our Legacy Operations. We will send funds to the Pastor Mark Livengood works with once we can find a safe way to wire them the offerings.

We also have a prayer guide for the Week of Prayer for North American Missions. Like the Ukraine prayer guide, these are available at the church office. You may also want to check out AnnieArmstorng,com for additional information. This prayer guide introduces us to ten of our missionaries and the mission they are doing. When you read and pray for these, you will fully understand why we receive the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering.

If you would like a copy of either of these prayer guides and cannot get by the church office, just call Neale at 843-762-0244. We will be glad to make sure you get copies. We want all the prayer support we can get! Amen?

Pastor Claudio and Luz Y Verdad, have baptized four people this past week. Praise the Lord for the increase in His family. You are a part of International Missions without ever leaving home. To God be the glory.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing,

Pastor Tom

THE PATHWAY TO DISCIPLESHIP

This past Sunday I started a new teaching series on discipleship called “The Pathway To Discipleship”. There are four parts to this series: The Call of Discipleship: Come and Follow Me; The Habits of Discipleship: How We Become More Like Jesus; The Costs of Discipleship: Take Up Your Cross Daily; The Commission of Discipleship; Go and Make Disciples.

The word disciple appears 261 times in the New Testament, with 233 of those times in the Gospels. The other 28 times it appears in the Book of Acts as the Church is getting started and missions are expanding around the world. One of the interesting facts is the word “Christian”. The word Christian only appears 3 times in the New Testament. It appears that the favored term for followers of Christ is “Disciple”. Jesus is our Rabbi, our teacher and we are his students, his followers, his disciples. Each of us has in some form or fashion heard Jesus say “Come, follow me”. The Pathways to Discipleship include “getting saved” as the starting point, the first step or as we call it, the first base. To be a fully devoted follower of Christ includes more than just becoming a Christian. It is becoming a follower of Jesus. The four weeks of March will be given to going deeper into what that means.

I love the idea that we are becoming disciples who make disciples that make our community and world a better place to live. One way we do that is through our support of James Island Outreach. We just received our annual report from James Island Outreach Executive Director, Scott Graule. Last year, in the middle of the pandemic, the James Island Baptist Church family gave financial contributions of $4950.00 to JIO and 7470 pounds of food contributions and has volunteers who serve regularly. Think of that…you gave almost 4 tons, literally, almost 4 tons of food to help the underserved.

Thank you for being such a generous church family all during the year. We are currently working with Ukrainian Churches and ministries to find ways we can financially bless them. We are planning to give to SEND RELIEF, The Southern Baptist agency that handles relief work; Samaritans Purse who is always on the ground and always at ground zero; the local church pastor that Mark Livengood works with (as soon as we can find a way to safely get him the funds); and then another ministry that several of our church members are connected with.

Check out www.SendRelief.org if you are interested in getting a prayer guide or following updates on relief efforts.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing!

Pastor Tom

HOW CAN WE HELP UKRAINE?

Here is an article put out by Southern Baptist “Send Relief”. This is a good place to start. We are including a prayer guide for you. JIBC is sending funds to help provide relief.

Psalm 22:28 “He rules over the nations”. Make it so, dear Father, make it so

Send Relief, the combined compassion ministry effort of the International Mission Board (IMB) and the North American Mission Board, is currently working with local Baptist partners in Ukraine to respond to the growing humanitarian crisis. This crisis has been created by the escalated tension mounting around the border between Ukraine and Russia and Russia’s invasion. Send Relief partners are already on the ground providing emergency food relief, shelter, clothing and more to displaced families. As the situation worsens, Send Relief partners are ready to provide further food relief, meet shelter needs and offer transportation to assist those impacted by this escalating crisis.

“With the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, we join all those in Eastern Europe in praying for peace,” IMB President Paul Chitwood said. “We know that God is sovereign in all situations, and Scripture reminds us that He is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. We keep our focus on Him, asking for His protection of the innocent and trusting that His justice will prevail. Pray with us that Jesus Christ would be glorified through the crisis in Eastern Europe, and that Southern Baptists would remain vigilant in meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of those who are suffering.”

Reports continue to indicate that as many as 5 million Ukrainians will be displaced in neighboring countries such as Poland and Romania, and a large number of internally displaced people are beginning to form in Western Ukraine. The greatest needs for these displaced families will include finding access to food, water, shelter, clothing, sanitation and hygiene.

Gifts to Send Relief’s Ukraine Crisis Fund (https://www.sendrelief.org/projects/ukraine/) are vital to these relief efforts. The best way for Southern Baptists to respond is through prayer and giving.

Pastor Tom