Our annual symposium meeting will be held on Friday, May 14 at Stony Baptist Church near Potosi. Pastor Claude Evans has been hard at work to put together a wonderful program for us. The national theme for missions has been, “Across the Street – Around the World” and we are going to echo that theme as well. We will hear from Tony Crocker- Foreign Missions, Bro. Sam Husser- North America Missions, plus from a local missionary. On the following Saturday, during our semi-annual meeting, Bro. David Dickson, our church planter from Puerto Rico, will preach the message and share about his new assignment within the states to our Latin American population. I believe it is going to be a great symposium and you will not want to miss it! If you have questions concerning motel accommodations, please contact Pastor Claude Evans at 573-562-7036.
I must sound a warning about our mission offerings. Despite our cut backs in missionary support and Director’s salary, the offerings from our churches are not keeping up with expenses. Please consider increasing your monthly offerings to state missions and giving generously to this year’s mission symposium offering.
As a member of the committee that arranges the annual Men’s Retreat, I am sad to inform you that we have suspended the Men’s Retreat for this year. The attendance of our pastors for this event has dropped off in recent years and the committee has called into question the need for this king of retreat. In addition, we count on the generous support of our state association and the Meramec association to fund this event. In light of the decreasing balances in both mission’s accounts, it is difficult to justify spending this amount of money. We would love to hear your comments concerning the continuation of this event.
I read the sad story the other day of a 26 year old flight attendant who was fired from her job for posing for Playboy Magazine. What was interesting was the reason for doing something that would cost her job. She stated that she had a lung disease that would require surgery and that the outcome was not good. She decided to pose for the magazine so the world would remember her.
The world is filled with people who desperately wish to be remembered. Many are inclined to build monuments to themselves in one way or another. This is why the account of Babel, found in Genesis chapter 11, is so important for us. It exposes the underlying cause for building monuments.
And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:4
What lessons are in this story for us today?
1) Man’s plans will never thwart God’s purposes.
God had commanded mankind to “fill the earth”. Man preferred to cloister rather than to comply with God’s command to spread out. In spite of man’s greatest efforts, God’s purposes prevailed.
2) Unity is not the highest good, but purity and obedience to the Word of God.
At first glance, we may commend the people for wanting to be of one voice and to be together in one place. Unity is a great virtue. Psa 133:1 states, “ BEHOLD, HOW good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity”
This is a good thing, but the Bible also says: in Amo 3:3, “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” Ecumenism is the watch word of religion today, but it is a unity at the cost of truth. Some regard unity as a goal worthy of any sacrifice. God does not.
3) The Word of God, and not the works of our hands, is the only thing worthy of our faith.
The men of Babel began to look at work as the cure rather than the curse. They believed that the work of their hands could assure them of some kind of immortality beyond the grave. Here, I suspect, is the driving force behind many workaholic. He cannot ever rest because he (or she) is never certain that a large enough monument has been built. Human endeavor is never satisfying, never fulfilling. Only work which is done for the Lord and in His strength brings lasting satisfaction.
The work of missions and church planting is labor that can bring satisfaction to our hearts for we know it is the great burden of our Lord. When we give of ourselves to the cause of sharing the gospel with the world, we are content with making our Savior famous and the Kingdom of God larger.
In recent days I have been doing some research on the three wise men or magi’s that search for the Christ child that they may worship Him and present gifts. The visit of these mysterious men from ancient Iraq would cause quite a stir in the small hamlet of Bethlehem. Some scholars feel there may have been more than three and these very important and powerful men would have traveled with a huge entourage of hundreds. Perhaps the dark silhouettes, that we often see printed during this season, of three lonely men riding camels really doesn’t capture this momentous event.
The Bible record tells us that these men had three gifts to give: And when they down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh- Matthew 2:11. The gifts had a great deal to say about the Child and about His future ministry. The gold was a fitting gift for a King and the wise men realized that they were standing before royalty, the King of Kings. The frankincense, a wonderful fragrance used for incense points to the priestly and prayerful ministry of Christ. Myrrh was the perfumed resin or sap of a particular tree that was used in ancient times to prepare a body for burial. Of course this gift, given to One so young, prophesized His coming death for the sins of the world.
As I thought about those gifts…really perfect gifts, I realized that they are in a sense Christ’s perfect gifts to us as well. Consider the following three gifts that Christ gives to us:
1. Our lives are always better when we live obediently under the umbrella of the Lordship of Christ.
2. It is a joy to know that we can come boldly before a King who is also our great high priest. How encouraged we can be in this life knowing that Jesus offers intercessory prayers on our behalf.
3. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death…that will never change. But for those of us who believe in the gift of God’s Son, Jesus became our payment for sin.
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. 2 Cor. 9:15
It is Carolyn’s and my wish that you and your family will experience the Christ of Christmas in a very special way this season. We thank you for the generous Christmas offering. May God bless our association in the coming new year!
