April Newsletter

To the Church Family at Faith Baptist Church;

             Once we get to April, we feel like spring has finally arrived. The trees are green again, flowers are blooming, and the temperature is rising to more comfortable levels. It is in the spring of the year when we celebrate Easter and Jesus rising from the dead. As when the world is bursting out with new life, think with me about the life Jesus gives.
Jesus is the life giver. He gives life that is everlasting.  God loves us so much that he gave Jesus so that by believing in him, we can have eternal life. That eternal life is also abundant life.  Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10).
When we invite Jesus into our lives, we become a new creation. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold the new has come.” We don’t just have a change of heart; we have a new heart. We don’t just have a revived spirit; we are given a new spirt because the Holy Spirit of God has come to live within us.  We are made new. Once when a very wealthy man received Christ, someone asked his chauffeur if the wealthy man was any different. The chauffeur replied, “It’s the same old sin, but there is a new man inside.” When we receive Jesus, there is a new person inside.             But the life giving does not stop with us. It is meant to be shared with others so that they may have everlasting, abundant life also. Are you doing anything to share that life with others?
             God has used the Gospel of John to bring many to the new life Jesus gives.
 In that Gospel, seven times Jesus refers to himself as “I am” and adds something to it.  Beginning April 7th, I plan to preach a sermon series on the “I am” statements of Jesus.  Jesus is the Word become flesh (see John 1:1-18) and dwells among us as the “I am,” God with us. Come each Sunday and worship the life-giving Jesus, the “I am” who is the Bread of Life, the Light of the world, the door to the sheepfold, the Good
Shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the way, the truth, and the life, and the living vine.