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I came back from the Wayne Association Bible Study on Philip Yancey’s book, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, really thinking a lot about forgiveness. In the book and at teh study we discussed the need to forgive so that it breaks the cycle. In a class I took, the professor had four people stand up and pretend to be one of the characters in the Good Samaritan story. I was the robber and what we had to do was just have a talk with each other. Well as we got rolling I blamed the victim for walking alone, others blamed me for beating him up, and the cycle went around and around for about 15 minutes when the professor said, now who is going to accept the blame. Of course each one of us wanted to win. We didn’t want to look weak. We didn’t want to take responsibility for our actions. Finally the professor said, “You have just proved why churches and marriages and relationships split. No one is able to say I’m sorry and claim their part of the blame.”

We think of forgiveness as a weak act, but as Yancey says, it actually is an act that comes unnatural. We aren’t born being able to forgive. We are born with a system of right and wrong, a system of fairness. We want what is rightfully ours and if you take away my happiness, then you owe me and I’m going to make you pay because that is only fair. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That is the system we grow up in and are taught from day one, but you see it is easy to judge and blame others. It is easy to hold a grudge, but it is entirely much harder to forgive and forget.

Weakness is shown in the person who cannot forgive. Weakness is shown in the person who has to fight for his prideful identity. You see as Christians, we don’t fight for any identity. We have an identity in Jesus that was paid for by Christ and can never be taken away. And the price Jesus paid was not only for our sin, but for the sin of our neighbor, the sin of the person who wronged us, who hurt us and abused us. Jesus paid for their sin too and all the sins that caused them to become who they are today, who we are today.

Holding onto unforgiveness does not lead to happiness. It leads to a life of resentment and revenge. It leads to a life that is suddenly controlled by the person you need to forgive. Take some time right now and search your heart on what you need to be forgiven for or who you may need to forgive and ask God to help you. Forgiveness can be a hard road to travel, but it always leads to freedom. Forgiveness is not a weak action, but one that truly shows our strength in knowing who God made us to be, who we are, his children!

Greetings Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

My wife, Jennifer, grew up in Plattsburgh, NY and she attended the North Country Alliance Church part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Denomination. Her pastor Rev. Bruce Overstreet began a journey on June 2nd, 2008 to bike across the United States to raise funds for the Koutiala Women and Children’s Hospital (Hospital Femmes Et Enfants) in Mali, West Africa. Mali has one of the worst health care in the world. Mothers many times have to choose whether to help one child who is sick and put the whole family at risk of starvation. The WHO recently listed it as one of the most needy countries in this regard. Women often die in childbirth, and children aren’t expected to live past age 5. Many of us have children and understand what it would mean to have to choose to not take care of them.

The Christian & Missionary Alliance and National C&MA church have partnered to create a hospital for women and children in Koutiala. The hospital doesn’t have enough labor and delivery rooms - in fact, it’s not unusual for several women to share a delivery room. There are only 17 beds in the whole hospital, so women also end up giving birth on the floor. The construction of a new wing is scheduled to begin next summer. Naturally, equipment will be needed for each of the delivery and surgical rooms. There are many other needs that this new hospital has to better care for the patients it seeks to treat. The Koutiala Hospital is making a big difference and is greatly appreciated by the people of Mali. Its presence is also creating a bridge to people who have little exposure to the love of Jesus and little access to information about Him. The hospital is being used to show the love of Jesus through a very practical and vital need the people have for proper medical care. In a land almost twice the size of Texas, it’s easy to understand how badly this hospital is needed.

The exciting news is that Pastor Bruce will be traveling through our area. He is scheduled to come through Tuesday, July 29th, 2008, but with weather conditions and other problems we will not be sure when he will get here until he does get here. With his trip he was trying to raise $1,000,000. He has so far raised $15,600 for the hospital in Koutiala, so I feel the word needs to get out.

You can download the Bike4Mali brochure here and you can also visit his website at www.bikeformali.org. There are also videos on his site of the hospital and the great need in Mali. I’m asking that you consider what you may be able to give to this wonderful mission to help people very far away from us! Thanks all!!

Coming up on September 7th is your chance to

Be The Church!!!!

On September 7th, morning worship will be canceled for you to be the church in our community. What does this mean? It means that your task for September 7th is to find a way of not just going to church, but being the church. Below you will find a list of groups that you can be involved in, or you can come up with your own, but this day will be dedicated to being the church to our community. Please sign-up for how you will be the church on September 7th.

Being the Church Groups:

1. Laundromat Lenders - This group will spend the morning at the Laundromat on Main Street meeting the people there, handing out water, and putting quarters in the machines for everyone that comes to do their laundry.
2. Lawn Mowers - This group will bring lawn mowers and weed trimmers and go door to door helping others take care of their lawns.
3. Street Sweepers - This group will travel Route 21 and Main Street picking up garbage as they go to make our town look great!
4. Car Wash Deliverers - This group will put appreciation baskets together at first and then deliver them to the Police, Fire, and Ambulance Services. After delivery, we’ll wash the police cars before they go on duty.
5. Visiting Singers - This group will visit Blossom View, perform VBS songs and visit with the residents bringing the joy of the Lord.

he above groups also will need some prep help.

A. Appreciation Baskets - We will need many items for the baskets, see below:

• candy bars or other individual servings of candy
• individual bags of potato chips, pretzels, etc.
• cans of nuts
• individually wrapped packages of homemade cookies or candy (please bring fresh on Sunday, Sept.7)
• gum
• bananas, apples or other fresh fruit (please bring fresh on Sept. 7)
• gift certificates from local restaurants

ALL ITEMS MAY BE BROUGHT TO THE FELLOWSHIP HALL BOX PRIOR TO SEPT. 7 UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED.

B. Quarters - Do you have a spare change bucket around? We need to collect quarters for the Laundromat Lenders as we take some burden off people and provide free laundry service.

Sign-ups can be found at Sign-Up Central and in the Fellowship Hall. Please sign-up as soon as possible for this great event and let’s show the community that we are alive and well and ready to truly be the church.

First Baptist Church of Williamson Is Seeking Help for Sister Church

In the summer of 2007 five persons represented FBC of Williamson and the Wayne Baptist Association in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic. During our time there the mission team was introduced to Pastor Jacqueline Ballista and the congregation of Iglesia Bautista El Redil. In fact we were able to serve alongside several members of this mission minded church.

Early last fall, we were saddened to hear from our friends about a devastating hurricane that passed through their area early last fall causing many rivers to flood resulting in the death of over a thousand people and leaving several thousand others homeless as the waters swept their homes away along with all of their belongings. We were relieved to hear that the members of El Redil had been spared and no one from their church was killed or left homeless by the storm. As expected, these caring church members began immediately helping neighbors in need of aid.

It was not long after the storm, however, that the congregation received final notice that their place of worship on the second floor of a private school would be divided into two rooms to make room for students. The space would no longer be available to the church for Sunday worship services. Imagine what it would be like if you lost your church building and you needed to find a new meeting place. Now imagine what it would be like if you had 100 members but your members had a family income level in the neighborhood of $200-300 or less per month.

The congregation of El Redil is still worshipping God in private homes through it all, and is now busy looking for a new church home. The church has located a nearby vacant property that is for sale that would serve them well in the future. Unfortunately, however, the real estate costs in the city of San Cristobal where they live are truly astronomical. The selling price of the property, which includes on it a small house that could be modified into a sanctuary, is $3,000,000 Dominican pesos. This translates roughly to $100,000 American dollars. The people of El Redil remain positive about their future and are confident that the Lord will provide them with the funds needed to purchase this property. Thus far they have raised about 1/3 of the purchase price through private donations and by selling personal items.

We have seen for ourselves what a shining light El Redil is in the communities around them and we want to do all we can to make sure that they can continue to serve and to grow. Therefore, as part of our call to global mission outreach the members of FBC of Williamson would like to encourage all churches and church members to join us in an effort to help El Redil to raise the needed funds to buy or build a new church building. We are launching a “Buy a Block” campaign with the goal of raising $2,500.00 by July of 2008 to help the members of El Redil realize their vision of a new place of worship.
We are asking our friends to prayerfully consider a gift of $10.00 or more to support the efforts of El Redil to buy or build a new church building.

Our team would love to come to your church and tell you more about El Redil and the work ABC missionaries are doing in the D.R. We have seen this church at work on the mission field and we are sure that your mission dollars will be multiplied by the hard work and dedication of this growing Baptist church located in the Dominican Republic.

Please make any checks payable to FBC of Williamson and make a note on the check that it is for the “Buy-a-Block” Campaign. Then send your gifts to:

FBC Williamson
PO Box 104
Williamson, NY 14589

If you have any questions please contact the church at 315-589-2384 or info@williamsonfbc.org. Or download a brochure with pictures by Clicking Here!

Thank you for believing that even thousands of miles away you can make a difference and help build the kingdom of God.

Sue Schultz offered a wonderful thank you to our teachers, helpers, and others who continue to use their gifts for the work and ministry of our church. Watch it below!

Be Careful of this video. Some of the songs are very loud compared to the talking. Also I’ve included below, the Benediction at the end of the service.

Congregation: Thank you, God, for children.
Children: Thank you, God, for puddles and poodles.
Congregation: Thank you, God, for children.
Children: Thank you, God, for books and balloons.
Congregation: Thank you, God, for children.
Children: Thank you, God, for parents and pizza.
Congregation: Thank you, God, for children.
Children: Thank you, God, for puzzles and playgrounds.
Congregation: Thank you, God, for children.
Children: Thank you, God, for songs and Bible stories.
Congregation: Thank you, God, for children.
Children: Thank you, God, for joy and most of all for Jesus.
Congregation: Thank you, God, for children.

John Ortberg was once questioned about whether or not he got out of the boat in his life with this question: “What are you doing that you could not do apart from the power of God?” Each of us I believe has to look at this question and think about our own lives. The root of this question is not whether we are taking risks for God or not, I think what this question is really asking is whether we are truly living or not. You see life is supposed to be lived in the power of God. That is where Jesus lived his whole life, in the power of God. It is the way we were created to live.

Does this mean we take risks? Well in some ways yes, but the risks we take if done in the power of God are not risks at all. They rely on a faithful God who said if we seek first his kingdom, that he will take care of the rest. Who said if we keep our eyes on him and not on the storms of life, that he will hold us up. Who said that he will be with us always, no matter where we are.

God hasn’t called our church to be another statistic in church history. God has called us to be his hands and feet here and now. There have been people before us and there will be people after us, but right now. Right now in this moment in time, in 2008, this is our day. If God’s love is going to flow through our community, if his kingdom is going to come down, it will have to be through us, you and me. God is not going to come down and take our place, instead he has gifted us and told us that he will use us, but we have to get our feet wet. We have to take the first step when he calls.

Henry Blackaby writes,

“Some people say, “God will never ask me to do something I can’t do.” I have come to the place in my life that, if the assignment I sense God is giving me is something that I know I can handle, I know it is probably not from God. The kind of assignments God gives in the Bible are always God-sized. They are always beyond what people can do, because he wants to demonstrate his nature, his strength, his provision, and his kindness to his people and to a watching world. This is the only way the world will come to know him.”

As John Ortberg says, “This does not mean that God calls us in a way that violates our “raw material.” Where God calls, God gifts.”

It does mean though that we can’t be afraid to tackle the call of God especially when it looks impossible in our eyes. What is impossible for us, is always possible for God.
God has not stopped calling us, he has not stopped the miraculous from happening. What has happened is that we have stopped getting out of the boat. God wants to do powerful things through us. He wants to use every single one of his children to glorify him and share his love and grace with the world.

It is time that FBC makes its mark on the world, not as a church that was around for 186 years, but as a church that changed the world when it decided to stop hiding in the boat and take a step out to reach the world for Christ.What are you doing that you could not do apart from the power of God? If your answer is nothing, it’s time to start listening and looking for what God has in store for you and taking the first step. He’s Calling, and Now is our time and our turn to truly live in the power of God and reach a world for Christ!

On April 27th Carl once again sang a wonderful song called, “I Would Love to Tell You What I Think of Jesus.” He also dedicated this to his daughter Kathy!

The theme of our 5th Mission Encounter Weekend this year is immersing ourselves in others. This image comes from Jesus’ baptism. Baptism was seen at the time as a sign of repentance. It was an act of confession. I have sinned and want to be cleansed from it to follow God and prepare for him to come. When Jesus entered the waters, it was not about sin though, because he was a sinless man. Instead Jesus’ immersion into the water represented his taking on of our burdens and pains and downfalls. Entering the world was not enough for Jesus, he needed to be where we were. He needed to feel our pain and reach the depths that we have gone. He needed to know pain and unfairness and death. And Jesus went to great lengths to find us and meet us where we were. He wasn’t afraid to be with the sinners and tax collectors of the world. In fact they were the people he loved to be around the most.

Jesus also invested everything he had for others to know God and understand how much he loved and accepted them. He didn’t own a house. He didn’t have the best clothes in town. He didn’t own a car or anything that would make him feel unapproachable by anyone. You see immersion means “involvement in something that completely occupies all the time, energy, or concentration available.” Jesus did exactly that. His whole life was centered around that one principle of showing the love of God to others and everything he did showed that unfailing and unconditional love.

The question is, are we following in his footsteps. Does everything we do help others know the love and acceptance of God? Are we immersing in those around us or are we keeping the miraculous gifts of God to ourselves? Jesus was willing to give up everything he had for others to know God’s love. He was willing to be poor, to not have a place to meet, to wonder about his next meal, to share the little that he had. He was willing to do all that to reach the people around him.

In the golden years of the church in America, people just entered the doors of the church and started coming. Today though we are in a culture that needs to know its real and true before they come. They have to see to believe. They have to see what it means to be a Christian. They have to see people with integrity care for them without strings. They have to be loved and thought of and accepted for who they are. They have to see that grace is real!

This isn’t going to be a one weekend a year kind of process either. Immersion for Jesus was daily, making each second count. Seeing the opportunities around him and taking advantage of them. Making himself aware of the needs and meeting them.

Showing the love of God I believe is worth giving up our lives. It is worth giving up our building and programs and everything we have. It was worth Jesus’ life. The reason we don’t immerse, or don’t get our feet wet is usually fear. Whether its fear of failure or loss or rejection or that God won’t take care of us. But as John Ortberg says, “we can’t let the no of fear trump the yes of faith.” Let’s begin to stamp out the fears in our lives and begin the immersion. We are Baptists anyway, let’s make immersion into others truly set us apart.

Our book study this spring is on John Ortberg’s book, “If You Want to Walk On Water, You Got To Get Out Of The Boat.” So far the book has been really good and challenging. I wonder though about this first premise, “If you want to walk on water…” Are there people that would rather not do that? Are there people that would like to stay in the comfort of the boat and would never think of stepping out?

In a way I think that is the danger of comfort. In one sense comfort is a good thing. We all need it from time to time especially when hard times come. The question is where do we find that comfort? Does it rest in food, the identity we find in our jobs, our relationships, our homes, possessions, money? Or does it rest in the loving arms of God who has promised to take care of us?

We have to search our minds for this because if it is found in the things of this world, we will be on a continual journey to surround ourselves with the things we find comfort in. And since the things of this world do not last, we will continually thirst for more. In the same way if we find our comfort in God we will get to know him more and more. And the more we know him the more we will be challenged to walk on the water. The more we will be challenged to trust only in him. The more we will learn to let go and allow God to lead us and guide us. The less we will worry and doubt.

God wants us to be in the place where this life has no worries. I imagine Paul being like that. The Spirit led him all over the world, even to the place where he knew he would be killed and never did he doubt God’s love and protection. Jesus trusted God through the crucifixion and was resurrected. I challenge you, the next time you need some comfort to take some time to pray and have others pray for you. Find your resting place in God, for he is able to supply all of our needs eternally!