What Is God's Will For You? well done my good and faithful servant

Thursday, May 3, 2018

It was a beautiful spring Sunday morning as we gathered to worship at Mill Creek Baptist Church. We were blessed to have several visitors. Wayne Johnson and Tim Stroud were celebrating birthdays, and special prayers were requested for Del Hawkins, J.R. Denny, Margaret Brown, the Bill Ralston family and the Hazelton family.

"Don't Give Up" was the devotional Linda Abercrombie shared with us as she read Psalm 5:1-3. God works through many people in many ways to reach us. Congregational hymns included, "Sunlight," with special music from Karen Gardner who sang "Daddy's Hands." Rick Lett and Tyrel Lett served as ushers and collected the offertory.

Our pastor, Brother Mark Hall, shared God's message for us by reading Matthew 3:13-17, about the baptism of Jesus. He began by asking us to visualize our happy place. "It is not a state of mind, it is a state of your heart, a state of being. Life is full of ups and downs, happiness and sorrow. When we are perfectly content in our happy place, there is no better place to be at that moment. We need to thank Jesus for those moments. God gives us those moments, but we have to work for them. To have those glorious moments, we have to have some effort on our part."

As Brother Mark read the scripture, he reminded us that Jesus walked 70 miles to be baptized. Brother Mark asked, "Did you ever wonder why Jesus needed to be baptized? Jesus didn't need to repent. He did it out of obedience to the Father. It was a sign of Jesus' acknowledgment of God's claim on him and his life. It was a sign of Jesus' complete dedication to following the will of God our Father."

Brother Mark told us that Jesus' baptism was also to announce the beginning of his earthly ministry and was done as an example for us to follow. "If you think about why Jesus needed to be baptized, how much more do we need to be baptized? We need to recognize the need to be baptized. Until you are baptized, you will never experience the glorious moment as described in Matthew 3:16-17. Getting baptized is for us to follow God, not for Him to follow us. That's how we have those special moments that come from the Father, but we won't have them without effort. There is no better place to be than in the middle of God's will, but you have to get up and go get it. Jesus doesn't just hang out with us. We must follow Him. What is God's will for you? What would He have you to do? Just ask Him."

Our hymn of invitation was "Where He Leads Me." We then observed the Lord's Supper as Brother Mark read from I Corinthians, Chapter 11, and Jerry Abercrombie and Rick passed the bread and cup. Doug Cory gave the benediction.

We will be participating in the Old Timers Day Parade this Saturday, May 5, with our float, "Fishers of Men." We will have a graduation luncheon for our graduates Sunday, May 6, after our worship service. There will be a wedding shower for Mitchell Lett and Abby Jeffries on Sunday, June 3. Vacation Bible School will be Saturday, July 14. We travel to Branson to see "Sampson" on Saturday, July 21.

Sunday school begins at 10 a.m. and the worship service at 11 a.m. Everyone is welcome at Mill Creek Baptist Church, which is located three and one-half miles east of Noel, just off Highway 90.

Religion on 05/03/2018