Four International Touch Points

Do you believe God can touch the world through James Island Baptist? Yes, of course we believe. It is the Great Commission that calls us to go into all the world and make disciples.

So, off goes Mark L. to Slovakia working with resettled Ukrainians escaping the war; off goes Robin C. and Brook B. to Colombia South America; off goes Amanda and Lyla H. to Uganda; and there goes Cheryl and Anne to Romania. Remember these in your prayers as they take the love of God and the Good News of Jesus to the utter most part of the world!

But what about “Missions at home”? Let’s talk about that. We host a new start Ukrainian Church who is trying to reach those in our community who were part of the former Soviet Union. Pastor Claudio and Claudia continue to lead Luz y Verdad to reach the Hispanic Church in the greater Charleston area. They are reaching about 100 each week and are constantly going to share the love of God to Migrants in Beaufort, Walterboro, etc.

Show some love locally? Of course! We are collecting school supplies for the underserved students at the new Johns Island Elementary School. We are trying to coordinate catering a meal for the teachers and distributing over 100 book bags filled with school supplies. Thank you all for being so generous .

Just around the corner is our mission partners, James Island Outreach. We are keeping them supplied with Jelly and syrup. It seems like they come by every two weeks to pick up all that you have donated. I love imaging some senior adult enjoying their biscuits or their PB&J with the jelly you donated!

Last of all I want to mention the “Spiritual Conversation” display. It is full to the brim indicating that our church family and friends have had almost 300 spiritual conversations in the last 6 weeks! We had to add two more containers to handle all the ping pong balls that represent spiritual conversations.

I love what our Father is doing. I love how you are following. See you soon, good Lord willing.

Pastor Tom

HE RESTORES MY SOUL

As a part of our “Spiritual Conversations: Let’s Talk About…” I talked about Mental Health. Over the years we have tried to help remove the stigma sometimes associated with mental health illnesses. God even enabled us to put together a community wide Festival of Hope addressing Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders/Addictions.

Elijah is one of the greatest characters in the Old Testament. Even so, it did not keep him from experiencing despair, discouragement and depression. The Bible makes no attempt to hide Mental Health Illness of its heroes

Today, I wanted to put together a list of my favorite Bible verses about peace and calm. Here are 10 Bible verses that you can write down in the cover of your Bible so you can turn to them quickly and often. See if you agree about these verses: Philippians 4:6-7; 2 Timothy 1:7; Psalm 23; Matthew 11:28-30; 1 Peter 5:7; Isaiah 41:10; John 14:27; Psalm 46:1-3; & Deuteronomy 31:6. What verses would you add to these?

Read and meditate on these verses. Keep them in an easy to find place. Let them so bless you that you in turn will be able to use them to bless others.

In addition, here are two prayers that you might find helpful in your journey toward peace that passes all understanding. The first one is the Serenity Prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace. Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it.

The second one you are more familiar with, The Model Prayer also called The Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Allow me to speak this blessing over you and your loved ones: The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face to shine upon you; And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. Deuteronomy 6:24-26

See you Sunday good Lord willing!

Pastor Tom

CELEBRATE AND SHARE THE LOVE

There are two thoughts on my heart this morning: celebrate and share the love. We try to live by the philosophy that we celebrate what we value and we value what we celebrate. So, let’s talk about both.

First, we celebrate the 8 students who made decisions to be followers of Jesus Christ. Pastor Logan and his crew of great volunteers took 29 Students to camp. That is the largest camp group Logan has had in all his years with us. I am sure the camp had great moments of Bible Study and Worship, Fellowship and Discipleship. But what can you say about 8 students making professions of faith. Let’s try “Hallelujah!”. Your giving, your prayers, your saying an encouraging word, your willingness to sacrifice so the volunteers could go…it all is a part of the process our Heavenly Father uses to bring his little lambs home! Thank you for praying, for giving, for going, for supporting. Pastor Logan will begin part two of discipleship right away teaching them the basics of how to follow Jesus.

WE ARE PLANNING A BEACH BAPTISM ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13 AT 6:30 P.M. We will gather at the Folly Beach County Park! Anyone who would like to be baptized is welcome to join us. Just let us know! We will also be glad to plan a baptism at the church for those who cannot make it to the beach. We love to celebrate baptisms! Hallelujah!!!

SHARE THE LOVE.
For the past years we have sponsored a back to school “School Supplies” for our community. We were always honored to work with Emmanuel Baptist Church and the James Island Outreach. I think I understand that James Island Christian will be joining in the School Supply Mission! That is great news.

We decided to share the love and welcome the new Johns Island Elementary School to the community. A new school and free school supplies for the under-served. What is there to not love about that? The list of supplies is what the school told us they need. We will set a goal of 100 book bags filled with supplies. We will be collecting the supplies until August 3 and will pack them on Tuesday, August 5 from 10 AM—Noon. Anyone who could or would help will be we greatly appreciated. Let’s share the love! Imagine the relief of 100 parents who don’t have to purchase supplies! Wow, what a load off their hearts.

Thank you JIBC. Celebrate and share the love!

Pastor Tom

THE HEAVY LIFTING IS OFTEN DONE BEHIND THE SCENES

There are a lot of times when an event or production takes place and everything falls into place and all goes smoothly. What is sometimes overlooked or never even seen is what goes on behind the scene. The behind the scene activity is often what we would refer to as the heavy lifting. Without the set up and support the show might go on but it will be a little bit slower.

In church world, particularly JIBC world, those who volunteer to work behind the scenes get a lot of credit for helping the worship service go smoothly. I am referring to those who work in the Sunday preschool nursery. What a great team doing a great service for parents and families. They provide a great service to the families and provide much love to the preschool children. They are the Jesus-like figures who, like Jesus, welcome the little ones to come to them! They love them, teach them, sing with them and play with them. Week in week out they do the heavy lifting.

As you might imagine, it takes a big group of volunteers to successfully run a great nursery. In our case, we have a 9:00 Worship service that provides a nursery: a 10:00 Bible Study hour that requires a nursery; and the 11:00 Worship service that provides a nursery. My understanding is the 10:00 nursery during Bible Study is “covered” by a well- oiled team! We do, however, need a dozen volunteers to help during the worship services, both the 9 and 11. The 9:00 nursery volunteers serve 1 Sunday a month. There are times when there are no preschoolers for that particular service. Perhaps you and a spouse or you and a friend or family member would like to volunteer for the 1X a month team. You could still go to the 11:00 service and not “miss worship” if you chose to.

We also need a larger group of volunteers to serve during the 11:00 hour. We try to schedule the 11:00 volunteers to serve 1 Sunday out of 8. Ideally that would be 6 times a year! Behind the scenes, heavy lifting but with great payoff. You are helping form a preschoolers first impression of “church”. You are assisting parents and families that need the extra help and care. Again, these volunteers are doing the heavy lifting that allows much of what we do in worship to be done. If this is an area you would be willing to serve in a rotation, would you let Pastor Kyle know. We would love to have all these times covered by our people with servant hearts.

See you this Sunday as we look at “Spiritual Conversations: Let’s talk about forgiveness”.

Pastor Tom

DON’T LET THE OLD MAN IN

I was at a routine Doctor’s appointment. I asked my Doctor about some things I could do to get healthier and stay healthy. His reply: “Don’t Let The Old Man In”. I thought that was his original statement. I was pleased to find out it is a song written by Toby Keith. He wrote it after a conversation with Clint Eastwood. Toby Keith asked Clint Eastwood how he stayed so energetic even at age 88. Eastwood said…you guessed it…”Don’t let the old man in”.

Toby Keith is not a theologian but he is a really good song writer. He took that phrase and wrote a great little song entitled “Don’t Let The Old Man In”. Here are a few lyrics I like:

Many moons I have lived,

My body's weathered and worn

Ask yourself how old would you be

If you didn't know the day you were born

Try to love on your wife

And stay close to your friends

Toast each sundown with wine

Don't let the old man in.

We all have an expiration date. I just wanted to make sure I did not unnecessarily hasten my demise. Jesus said He came so we could have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:10) The verse just before that one reminds us the devil, the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I don’t want him to steal anything of mine that would keep me from Jesus’ abundant life.

Imagine if someone asked me “What do you want people to say about you 30 years from now?” I want the answer to be “Man he looks good for 100!” Don’t let the old man in.

By the way, that is a really good spiritual point: don’t let your old self in. You have been given a new spirit. Your old man is your flesh, your life before Jesus. Your new man is the born again, filled with His Spirit new man. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. Let’s work on not letting the old man back in! Good spiritual health is attainable too just like good physical health. Both require that we don’t let the old man in!

See you Sunday, good Lord willing.

Pastor Tom