Morningview is known to be a church that loves children and families, and now we have the opportunity to be examples when it coming to loving children without families.  In fact, I was at the Executive Board Meeting for the Montgomery Baptist Association this week and they made it a point to express their thankfulness to Morningview for hosting Foster Parent Training through DHR this past year.  Our example has now led other churches in our city to host this training and to develop foster care and adoption ministries.  To God be the glory!

As we now prayerfully consider how to further develop an ethic that supports adoption at Morningview, there are some specific ways that each of us can be involved.

First, we must PRAISE God.   Adoption is a beautiful picture of the gospel.  Formerly, each of us were children of wrath, deserving eternal separation from God and eternal suffering in hell because of our sinfulness.  We were spiritually destitute and wrapped in the filth of worldliness.  Yet while we were yet enemies of God, Christ died for us, to reconcile us to God.  He sacrificially bore the wrath that we deserved, purchasing our salvation with His own blood.  And when we repent and believe in Him, we are adopted as God’s own and made co-heirs with Jesus Christ.  Praise God for the fact that He has adopted YOU!

Second, we must PRAY.  Pray for mothers and families even now who, because of great difficulties, are surrendering their children for foster care and adoption.  Pray for these children, especially the older ones, as they are torn and heartbroken by such choices.  Pray for homes where these children will be loved and cared for; specifically, pray that they would be placed where they will hear the gospel.  Pray for families in our midst who are considering and who are actively involved in adoption.  Pray for God to provide the necessary finances, the wisdom to love and lead these children through the transition, and for godly patience to persevere through the legal process.  Pray for God to raise up more men and women in our congregation who will have a heart for this gospel ministry.

Third, we must RECEIVE.  We have already experienced the blessing of having adopted children of all different nationalities and ages in our midst.  May God bring us even more!  We as a church must be prepared to receive them, to love them, and to support their parents with prayer and fellowship and accountability and encouragement.  We must be committed to embodying a true faith, grounded in the Word, walking like Christ, and proclaiming the gospel in all we do.  We must welcome them into our homes, cherish them as if they were our very own, pray for their salvation, and even petition the Lord for godly spouses for them when they reach adulthood.  In this way, we show these children a picture of grace by truly being their extended family.

I love you all dearly!

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church

This past Sunday, we had 63 in Sunday School attendance in our Children’s Department, and during our worship service, we had 61 in attendance in our Preschool.  It is now a rare occurrence for us not to have at least 125 present in the age range from birth to sixth grade, and some Sundays we reach upwards of 140.  If you factor in our Youth Department, it means that on a regular basis, over 50% of our Sunday morning attendance is under age 18.

These children and youth are a precious stewardship entrusted to us by the Lord, and they are the future of Morningview.  If the Lord tarries, they will be the ones leading and teaching and ministering here (and hopefully, around the world) when Morningview reaches its 100th anniversary (in 2049).   Given that reality, it is important that we continue laying a biblical foundation in them for their good and for the glory of Christ.

First, we need to pray regularly for them.  They are growing up in a world with a media machine that will virtually suffocate them with temptations.  Illicit sex, materialism, self-centeredness, worldly entertainment, and host of other idols will be regularly be paraded before them.  We need to pray for spiritual protection for them as well as praying for their salvation.  Hearts and minds informed by the Word of God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit will be their best protection and the best foundation from which they can engage the world with the gospel.

Second, we need to be found diligent in teaching them.  Our instruction comes in two primary forms — accurately and continually communicating the eternal truth of God’s Word, and faithfully embodying examples of godliness in our homes as well as in church.  We must continue working with them to memorize Bible verses and catechism questions.  We must talk with our children about how to apply God’s Word to everyday situations and temptations.  Even our discipline of them must be grounded in the eternal truth of the Scriptures and modeled after the gentle love and patience of Christ.

Family worship is key in this regard.  The ministries of the church are secondary and only intended to support the primary spiritual instruction that is taking place in the home, so make times of Bible reading and discussion and prayer a regular part of your week.  We all have much to do, but no other involvement or priority will serve your children as well as this one.  And even if you don’t have children or don’t have them at home anymore, your example still matters.  We are all part of one body, one household of faith, and your life and your example impacts every other person who is in covenant with you in this church.

Third, we need to continue to invest our labors in these young ones.  This week during VBS, it has been such a blessing to see how so many adults and youth are pouring their time and energy into ministering to the children that have come.  Likewise, we have so many faithful Sunday School Teachers and Leaders and Childcare Servants who give so much of their time to teaching and caring for our young ones.  Our worship Care workers regularly sacrifice a Sunday each two months to care for our little ones during worship.

I commend all of you who serve so faithfully, and I ask that we all consider how we may join their ranks, in large or small ways.  Remember, they are gifts from God, a precious stewardship, and our future.  In what way are you investing in eternal things by pouring yourselves into their lives?  I love you all dearly!

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church

When I came as your pastor in 2006, Morningview had navigated some challenging waters during its time without a pastor, but we were doing well.  In terms of the financial picture, God’s people were faithfully giving, but the church carried a burden of debt that amounted to about 1.3 million dollars.

In our last business meeting just a week ago, we saw that, by the grace of God, our debt has decreased almost a million dollars in just 4 years!  With the sale of our Bell Road Campus to Evergreen Community Church, the sale of our Vaughn Road property to Macon East Academy, and our faithfulness to honor God in our giving, we have made amazing progress.  Now, our outstanding debt on our 8 surrounding houses (which is paid for by incoming rent) is down to only about $220,000, and our outstanding debt on our main campus (for parking lot and bus barn construction in 2005) is down to about $172,000.  TO GOD BE THE GLORY FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE!

What this means for us, brothers and sisters, is that our church could be completely free of debt by 2011.  What amazing progress that would be for us to be able to divert more of our financial resources to global missions and community missions when that day comes!   But reaching that goal takes sacrifice, and that is where I want to encourage you all to continued faithfulness in giving.

Ultimately, we don’t give to support a church budget or to employ vocational ministers or to support a church facility or to pay down debt on physical assets.  We give as an act of worship unto our God.  He does not personally require our financial resources because the whole earth and everything it contains belongs to Him (Psa 24:1, Acts 17:25).  Likewise, everything we have originates with Him and has merely been entrusted to us as a stewardship from Him.  Therefore, the giving of our tithes and offerings is an act of worshipful obedience that God receives for His glory and that He uses to further His kingdom through His church.  That is why He loves cheerful givers (2 Cor 9:7), because those who are joyfully generous are actively demonstrating that they share His delight in His Person and Work.

With that in mind, I want to encourage us all to continue as faithful stewards of what he has entrusted to us.  If you are already exercising the habit of sacrificial giving, be encouraged by the blessings of obedience.  Thank the Lord for His daily supply and for the privilege of worshiping Him with what has been entrusted to you.  If you are not giving at all or not giving according to the New Testament standard of “sacrificial” giving, then carefully pray and consider what specific steps you can take and what specific measures you can put in place to wean yourself away from earthly dependencies and render unto God what He requires.  Remember that for the vast majority of Americans, tithing, or giving a tenth of your income, is the “training wheels” of giving, and true “sacrifice” requires growth in what percentage we give back in worship.

Finally, as regards our “Growing in Grace” emphasis, many long-time Morningview members have been faithfully giving beyond their normal offerings to support building programs and renovations that required us to utilize loans.  To you who have sacrificed so faithfully, the paying off of our debt is in sight!  Keep up the good work!

To others who have just come to Morningview in the past 4 or 5 years, I encourage you to be part of this blessing.  On your offering envelopes, notice there is a second line labelled “Growing in Grace.”  This designated line goes directly to paying down the debt that was incurred for the beautiful facilities we now enjoy.  Talk with your spouse and pray about how you can give beyond your normal offerings to see these projects completed and to see our debt eliminated.  And as always, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow. . .”  I love you all dearly!

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church

The prayer room at Morningview is a ministry designed to assist members in praying for one another.  It has a system of keeping track of prayer requests and of how God answers those requests over time.  Our church covenant at Morningview commits us to pray for one another, and the prayer room is one way we can keep each other accountable to do that.  Being involved in the prayer room will help you to know the needs of your brothers and sisters in Christ.  It will also allow you to benefit from the blessing of how God answers prayer in our midst.

Just sign up on the prayer room board in the sanctuary this Sunday.
If you can’t sign up for a full hour, you may find a partner to split your hour with.
You may also sign up with one or two partners to rotate weeks in the prayer room.  Just make sure all of your names are listed for the time slot or call the church office with the list of everyone in your group.

When you sign up, we will contact you with further information about how to access the prayer room (the door code) and get you information about how the prayer room works.

We understand that everyone has different responsibilities; so, not everyone can give an hour each week to the prayer room.  We put the board up in the sanctuary to remind us of our responsibility to pray and to make the sign up process easier.  If you can be involved, we want you to be motivated by the grace of Christ alone, not by the guilt of the law, or fear of what others might think if you don’t sign up.

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church

This past Sunday was a great blessing.  God’s Word to us all was strong and rich and convicting.  The fields are indeed ripe unto harvest, and we must beseech the Lord to send workers into His harvest.  As we pray, we must also labor.  We will be laboring this weekend as we gather to participate in our Community Missions Service Day (Praise God — all but a few of the teams are full!), but we also need to pray for opportunities beyond the ministries of our church.  Each of us are to be Salt and Light in our own personal circles of influence.

Knowing that, I wanted to encourage you all with some specific instructions about how to pursue and engage in witnessing opportunities.  First and foremost, PRAY daily for specific opportunities to share the gospel.  I promise you God will put people in your path when you do so.  Pray for opportunities with family members, friends, co-workers, classmates, and those you encounter when you are out shopping or eating or attending sporting events.  Furthermore, pray for specific persons that you know are lost.  Do me a favor – take a post-it note and write down the names of 5 to 10 people that you know are lost.  Then stick that note on your bathroom mirror and pray for each of them by name as you get ready each morning.  Put a duplicate of that note on your dashboard and pray for them as you drive to and from work.  Remember, prayer fuels evangelism.

Second, be prepared to share the gospel when God opens the door.  Evangelism is more than just talking about God’s blessings or inviting people to church.  Those are good starting points, but evangelism, at its core, is proclaiming Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation.  Thus, take time to re-acquaint yourself with the essential points of the gospel.  Pick up one of our GRACE tracts to help.  You could also practice sharing your Christian testimony as one way to help you open doors to share Scripture about Jesus Christ.  Preparation is the most important component of being able to share the gospel, so know the Scriptures — God’s Word is what is powerful to persuade men.

Third, get out there and do it.  Be intentional about engaging people in conversation wherever you go.  Be intentional about taking part in outreach and evangelism opportunities that we offer as a church.  If you are nervous at first, make it a point to go with someone who is well-seasoned in the practice of evangelism.  Watching them and engaging people with them will help allay your fears and it will help you learn how to initiate spiritual conversations.  One of my favorite ways to turn the conversation to spiritual matters is to ask questions.  After getting acquainted with a person, I like to ask “Do you have a church home?” or “How can I pray for you today?”  These questions frequently allow me to begin sharing about faith in Christ.

inally, be mindful of your goal in evangelism.  Your goal is to share the biblical gospel.  Success in evangelism is achieved by sharing what Scripture says about God’s person and law, man’s sin, Christ’s sacrifice, and the requirement to repent and believe.  Whether or not a person is converted is God’s responsibility.  If they listen to you, you are blessed.  If they reject or ridicule you, you are blessed (Matt 5:11-12).  So do not fear men.  And by the way, studies on evangelism have shown that 4 out of every 5 lost persons are more than willing to politely hear what we have to tell them about Christ.  So tell them!  In evangelism, we only fail when we fall silent in the moment of divine opportunity!  I love you all dearly.

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church

6:30 pm

Come and join with our church family for a focused look at what it means to know God through the practice of praying His word.

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church

Recovering daily, meaningful prayer is a matter of self-discipline – a matter of learning how to say “No” to lesser pursuits, “Yes” to the Holy Spirit who guides us to God’s presence in prayer, and “I will” to what Scripture sets before us as instruction in prayer.  From that point, it is a matter of being a “doer” of the Word by praying – by simply talking with God.

Prayer is a matter of opening up your heart in genuine sincerity and offering yourself and all of your concerns up to God.  It is confessing your sins before Him and savoring again the grace of Christ in forgiveness.  It is the humble acknowledgement of your complete dependence upon the sovereign Lord of the universe.  It is seeking the fruit of His presence, His gifts, and His promises in what is truly an act of worship.  It is casting upon Him your burdens, thanking Him for His grace, being still and waiting upon Him in faith, and celebrating His splendor.  Finally, it is maintaining an ever deepening expression of all of these things without falling back into a “rut” of empty repetition.

This is where praying through Scripture is so valuable.  Scripture is God’s inerrant, inspired, sufficient revelation of Himself and His purpose of redemption.  When we take the truth of God’s Word and use it to guide our hearts and inform our minds and frame our speech, we realize a prayer life that encompasses a height, width, and depth that we have scarcely experienced before.  The benefits of this discipline are many, but here are three of the most important:

1.  Praying Scripture will lead you to explore and give expression to previously unprobed areas in your life.  Just as expository preaching through whole books leads you to discover all the precious jewels of Scripture, praying the Scriptures leads you to personally meditate upon and express all facets of God’s Word.  For example, if I were to pray through a short chapter like Philippians 4, I would would be drawn to consider and pray about standing firm in Christ, the harmony of my relationships with others and how to have a forebearing spirit, my Christian joy, being free of anxiety through prayer, how the peace of God guards us, and the chief things my mind is to dwell upon.  And all of this is just in the first 8 verses!  When was the last time your prayers were concerned with any of these things?

2.  Praying Scripture will help you to enrich and vary the language of prayer.  When we pray, we too often fall back to repeating cliche’s and statements we have heard from others in prayer rather than depending on God’s Spirit and truth to give proper expression to what is in our own hearts.  When we articulate the realities of our own hearts through the lense of biblical truth, we develop the habit of praying biblically rather than the habit of praying repetitiously.  Consider the beauty of what we have in Psalm 1:1-2 – “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!  But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.”  That is indeed rich language to be guided by in prayer!

3.  It directs us to focus more on the person of God rather than upon ourselves.  The average Christian believes prayer is more about expressing our needs than it is about worshiping God.  Don’t get me wrong – we are certainly to be dependent upon God to meet our needs, yet the greater priority of prayer is being still, and knowing He is God. (Psa 46:10)  When was the last time your prayer consisted mainly of celebrating the attributes of God?  When was the last time you recounted to Him the splendor of how He has revealed Himself in creation?  In redemption?  In your sanctification?  Consider what it would be like to pray Job 38-42, Psalm 19, or Romans 11:33-36.  Great prayer is birthed through meditating upon our great God.

These a just a few of the numerous benefits that come through praying God’s Word, so commit now to join with your church family in praying through Scripture in 2010!

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church

Hebrews 13:12-14 says, “Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.  Hence, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.” (NAS) These words of Scripture are exactly what you think they are – a call to leave the ease of our comforts, to get outside ourselves and outside the four walls of our church buildings and identify with the sufferings of Christ.  This is not our home; we are seeking the city which is to come.

As a reminder of the importance of our prayers, I want to share with you the the story of Asia Bibi, and Christian woman in Pakistan who is currently imprisoned and on trial for blasphemy against Islam.  Her story is reported by the Voice of the Martyrs:

On Oct. 14, Asia Bibi appeared in court, in Sheikhupura, Pakistan and spent some time with her family before the court appearance.

Asia’s husband, Ashiq Masih, her daughters and VOM contacts met  her for 15 minutes before the court appearance. “Asia is in strong faith. Her eyes were hopeful. Praise God,” VOM contacts said. Asia told VOM contacts she prays everyday at 3 a.m. “I thank God that the jail administration has good behavior with me,” she said. “I don’t have trouble from them, but I miss my daughters and family. Please arrange my soon release from this jail,” Asia told VOM contacts.

Asia’s daughters were visibly upset when they met her. “The little daughter was continuously asking her mother ‘Mama when are you coming back home?’” VOM contacts said. Isha, the eldest daughter, cried and hugged her mother and would not let her go.  Isha pointed to the veil on her mother’s face and said, “I want to see your face, remove this cover.” It was a sad scene.

The court rescheduled another hearing for Oct. 27. Asia was arrested by police on Friday, June 19, and charged with blasphemy. Her family is one of only three Christian families in a village of more than 1,500 families.

Many of the local women, including Asia, work on the farm of Muslim landowner Muhammad Idrees. During their work many of the Muslim women have pressured Asia to renounce Christianity and accept Islam.

On June 19, there was an intense discussion among the women about their faith. The Muslim women told Asia about Islam. Asia responded by telling the Muslim women that Christ died on the cross for our sins, according to VOM sources.  She told them Jesus is alive. “Our Christ is the true prophet of God,” she reportedly told them.

Upon hearing this response the Muslim women became angry and began to beat Asia Bibi. Then some men came and took her and locked her in a room. They announced from mosque loudspeakers that she would be punished by having her face blackened and being paraded through the village on a donkey.

Local Christians informed the police, who took Asia into custody before the Muslims could carry out their plan. She is currently being held at the police station in Nankana city. Christians there urged the police not to file blasphemy charges, but police claimed that they must go forward due to the pressure from local Muslim leaders.

Pray for strength for Asia and her family to endure the sufferings of whatever sentence is handed down.  Pray that God would be glorified and Christ lifted up through her unswerving commitment to the Savior.  Also pray for the salvation of Muslims in Pakistan.  I love you all dearly!

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church

UIGHURS OF NORTHWEST CHINA (WEE-ghurs). Pray for A, a Uighur believer who has been under arrest for many months but who has not been brought to trial. Recently there have been indications that A’s treatment in prison has progressively deteriorated. There is fear for this believer’s life by the hand of prison authorities. People saw A being escorted to a hospital, at which time A called out to people there to contact A’s lawyer. Please pray that pressure can be brought to the right people to seek an immediate release for A. http://www.pray4them.com/

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church