The Woodmont Word

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From the Pastor

He Has Not Quit On You                                                                                                            

On September 12, in 1997 a Gadsden, Alabama man reported that he had been robbed twice in one weekend. On Saturday around 4:00 P.M. he was beaten and robbed of $10. The following Sunday morning, this same man was picked up, taken to a residence, and robbed of the $80 he had in his wallet, thus being robbed twice in one 24-hour-period. Now that's enough to make you paranoid! I suppose people like this would be justified in going inside, locking their doors and never coming out. And many people do take this attitude. You know, it's just wise. Once burned, twice shy.

But you cannot live that way, distrusting everybody, afraid of being hurt. So, you've been divorced; will you quit? So you've failed; what now?  You say you've lost your best friend; will you give up on all people?

Somewhere down the line you'll need to find the courage to trust again or at least try again. Jesus will help. After all, He loved mankind even after being crucified. And He hasn't quit on you.

We Love You Jesus!

Bro Jerry

Thompson's Text 

Ed Stetzer shared recently that "The problem with the harvest is not the harvest."

It's a fascinating thing. When Christians discuss evangelism, we almost always focus on non-Christians. We talk about how hard it is to share Christ with them. They don't want to listen. Their hearts are hardened. They're too secular.

We make it sound like the harvest is the problem. When talking about the harvest 2,000 years ago, the word Jesus used to describe the harvest was "plentiful." He saw the problem lying with the workers: they were few. Despite our attempts to shift the blame onto the harvest, the situation is the same today as it was then.

The fact is countless people are open to the gospel. Stat after stat, which I will point out shortly, tells us so. But first, let's listen to the words of Jesus.

"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few."

Let those words sink in. Let them sink deep into your heart and mind.

"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few."

There are people all around us who don't yet realize Jesus came and died for them. Depending on how you count, maybe 1 in 5 Americans has a commitment to Christ that is real and life changing. That means 4 in 5 do not.

That's a lot of lost people.

But don't miss the fact that about 1 in 5 of Americans is a committed believer. All of those believers are commanded to do the work of evangelism:

• to share the gospel
• to go and make disciples
• to show and share Jesus to a lost and hurting world.

But few of those believers do those three things.

According to research the typical churchgoer tells less than one person how to become a Christian in a given year. The number for more than half of respondents was zero. The second most frequent answer was one. In other words, workers are few.

Ironically, non-Christians are open to the message that Christians seem hesitant to share. Of the people who don't go to church, 78 percent agree (somewhat or strongly) that, "If someone wanted to tell me what she or he believed about Christianity, I would be willing to listen."

Let's look for opportunities to share our faith this week.

Steve

 Reese's Pieces 

I woke up this morning with a song running through my head, an old hymn that I remember from the little country church where I grew up. It says, "I am satisfied, I am satisfied, I am satisfied with Jesus." Now, we church folks sing some pretty bold songs--I Surrender All, I'd Rather Have Jesus than anything this world affords today--and that song makes a pretty big claim: I am satisfied with Jesus...Really? Even as a kid, when I would hear it in church, I wondered. I don't think we can know for sure the degree of our sincerity until we find ourselves in a position to prove it. 

Around this time last spring, the sky turned black and the sirens sounded (and I think we've learned to take these things pretty seriously by now) and so my wife and I hunkered down in the basement. I found myself thinking about those people not far from here who had so recently lost their homes, their possessions, their loved ones...and I wondered if I would really be satisfied with Jesus if that were to happen to me. It's easy to say "I'd rather have Jesus than anything" when you're sitting in your comfortable home with your happy marriage and your great kids and your health and your toys. 

A great deal of what I know about my relationship with my Heavenly Father I learned from being a father to my own children. You can also discover much about human nature by observing little kids. I can remember, once upon a time, coming home from work every day and my kids being just overwhelmed to see me. It was a real ego trip. No one had ever been that excited when I pulled up in the driveway. I would get out of the car and immediately find myself in a wrestling match with three wired-up bundles of energy. They would absolutely wear me out! And the more exhausted I became, the more they wanted. They were insatiable. 

 When Lydia was very small her favorite thing was for me to push her in a swing, and she was a real thrill-seeker from a very early age, so she would always shout, "Higher!  Higher!  Higher!"  I would really get into it because I was proud of her for not being a chicken. And Corinne would say, "Kevin! She's three. You're pushing her too high!" So it got to be that every time we would go to a park, Lydia would hop in a swing and shout, "Daddy, push me too high!" 

My son went on a mission trip to Mexico a few years ago, and he was one of the strongest young men on the team, and these little kids gravitated to him and wanted him to swing them around and throw them in the air. He said they kept shouting over and over "Uno Mas!"  (One more.) 

But that's the way it is with kids: they want more, more, more, higher, higher, higher, bigger, bigger, bigger.  But isn't that the way we are, too? Sometimes I feel like I must wear God out, and I can imagine Him saying, "Ahhh, I'm so glad Kevin is finally in bed. Now I can do what I want to do."

Paul said, "I know what it's like to have plenty, and I know what it's like to be in need, and I have learned, whatever my circumstances, to be content." See, circumstances get me, too.  And it's usually not BIG things, but rather the little things that trip me up. I tend to overreact and flip into crisis mode when the situation doesn't really call for it. For example, I recall another time when my kids were small, and one of them flushed something down the toilet that wasn't meant to go down there. And I HATE plumbing; it ruins my life. So I was in there with my plunger and my bucket and my wire hanger (employing every trick my dad ever taught me) and I was moaning and beating my breast and crying out for all the world in my distress, "Why, oh why do bad things happen to good people?" 

The next day was Sunday, and I was still reeling from that emotional upheaval, and it was difficult for me to get up and lead worship. We had a guest speaker that morning...a missionary.  And he stood there in the pulpit and described what life was like for him and his wife and his children in war-torn Bosnia. And I hung my head in shame. Talk about getting perspective.

My trials don't compare to this man's trials. Nor do they compare to Job's tribulations. I don't think Satan approaches God asking permission to sift me like wheat, and then attacks my toilet. 

But this is what I have found. Psalm 73:26, "God is the strength of my heart and my PORTION forever." 2 Cor. 12:9, "My grace is SUFFICIENT for you."  Col. 3:11, "He is my ALL in ALL."  What that says to me is that He becomes ALL I need in ALL situations, no matter how big or how small. If there is a death in my family, He is sufficient for that.  If I run out of the house in a hurry to get where I'm going and find that I have a flat tire, He is all I need.  If I have a craving for more stuff or bigger stuff or better stuff, He is my All in All.    

How would it change our lives, and how would it change our character if every morning, when we wake up, before we even put our feet on the floor, we say these words: "Lord, You are my portion. Your grace is sufficient for me today.  You are my All in All.  You are more than enough for me"?

Kevin

Children's Ministry   

Kids Kamp June 2-6

Vacation Bible School June 23-27 

Belinda

Rev. Jerry Rea, Pastor

Rev. Steve Thompson, Assoc. Pastor/Min. of Ed/Admin.

Rev. Kevin Reese, Music Minister

 Rev. Chad Hess, Student Minister

Denise Coats, Children's Minister

Belinda Green, Singles and Families Minister

 Becky Daugherty,

 Joyce Clark,

 Mark Russell, Building Superintendent

Melinda Glover, Custodian

Genevieve Whitworth, Custodian

 Latricia Hensley,

 Becky Foster,