jasonedwindees

Over the next ten weeks the members of First Baptist Church are going to be out in the community serving our fellow citizens. This is all part of an annual effort at First Baptist called, Bless the Community: Ten Projects in Ten Weeks. Our Lord Jesus came not to be served, but to serve. In following His example, it is our desire to minister to, serve, and meet the needs of this community. We are calling this series of projects, “Bless the Community,” because that is what we want to be, a blessing to this community. Jesus said to His disciples, “You are the Light of the World, a city on a hill cannot be hidden.” At First Baptist we believe that we have been called to be that light, to serve others and to bring the light of Christ into a dark world with great needs.
Look for us out in the community over the next ten weeks. The following are a few examples of the places we are serving and the projects that we are doing:

Week 1 – January 29th – February 11th – Collection for Garden of Gethsemane Homeless Shelter
During this week we would like to collect 75 care packages—25 for men, 25 for women, and 25 for children. Each package should be in a plastic shoebox with a minimum of the following items: Personal hygiene items (disposable razors, deodorant, body wash, etc.)
Socks,
Wash cloths, Devotional book/coloring books with crayons for kids, Shampoo, Soap, Small toy for kids, Emory boards and fingernail polish for women (optional).

Week 3 – February 19th-25th – Collection for First Baptist Prison Ministry
This week we will support the Prison Ministry through prayer and donations. The following items are needed: Bibles, Devotional Books, Christian Books (all books should be soft-cover only). This ministry meets every Monday night at the Newton County Detention Center.

Week 5 – Week 5 – March 5th – 7th – Serving at Merryvale Assisted Living
FBC will present a 3-day VBS, Monday through Wednesday, 10:00 a.m.—11:30 a.m. Activities will include Prayer, Bible Study & Devotional Time, Craft Time, and Music.

Week 6 – March 11th – 25th – Serving and collecting for First Baptist Laundromat Ministry
This ministry meets at the local coin Laundromat the last Saturday of each month to minister to and pray with the community residents and provide quarters to help with the expense of their laundry. This is a time for us to show God’s love to them, receive their prayer requests and teach our children to serve. This ministry currently spends $300 each month. We would love for you to give to support this ministry or join us in serving.

For a complete list of all of our projects please visit our web page at www.firstbaptistcovington.com, or give us a call at (770) 786-9031. We not only want to serve this community we want you who are blessed to join us in this effort. When speaking of the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus once taught that the righteous would be rewarded for serving Him, feeding Him, and giving Him drink. We read in Matthew the account of how the righteous responded, to Jesus’ reward. “Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (Matthew 25:37-40) ESV.

If you come by the church office any given day of the week you are likely to find me in a suit with a tie on. This has often led to confusion from church members and others in the community as I am often asked, “Why do you always dress up for work?” I will admit that my dress is not the norm, many of my contemporaries in ministry wear golf shirts, or blue jeans to work, and being 29 people expect me to fit into this mold. So, why the ties? Why the suits? I am glad you asked.
I have not always dressed up for work, and for that matter I’ve not always dressed up for anything. When I was in college, I often showed up for class in shorts and a T-shirt, and this carried over my post-graduate seminary studies. In fact, one time while at Southern Seminary I was called into the dean’s office for wearing shorts that had “too many” holes in them. Even that correction didn’t lead to any real change. My typical outfit was still shorts or jeans and a T-shirt. Even out of seminary when I first came to First Baptist, my day-to-day apparel was a golf shirt or button up shirt and khaki pants, nothing more.
It was about a year after I came to First Baptist however that I began to ask the question of my own apparel. One day I was meditating on 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God, ”and I began to ask myself, “How do you dress for the glory of God?” It struck me that an individual’s apparel communicates something about that individual. So, as a man who was following Jesus and trying to bring glory to God in all things, what was it that I was trying to communicate in my dress? Now, I am not saying that I believe every man ought to wear a suit and tie to his job, but as I thought through the context that God has placed me in, that is the conclusion that I came to. Not because people at First Baptist expect this (they certainly don’t), but because a good suit of clothes communicates to our culture certain things that are becoming of a disciple.
The first is leadership. Christians are called to lead, and this of course is especially true for pastors. Jesus instructed his followers to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. He told them to be influencers over other people and over society as a whole. When you are dressed like a leader, people look to you to be a leader. I can’t tell you how many times that I have been asked by strangers for directions, or for help on something, simply because in a suit I look like I know the answer. Now, there are plenty of men in suits that don’t have a clue of what they are talking about, but in our culture people sure think they do. As a Christian, you should take every opportunity you can to influence culture for Christ and if your dress can give you influence, why not take the opportunity?
Secondly, wearing sharp apparel shows professionalism. If your doctor came out to meet you in shorts and a T-shirt, chances are you wouldn’t let him operate on you. In the same way, you probably wouldn’t seek legal council from someone in jeans. A good suit of clothing on a man or woman shows professionalism, it shows that man or woman is serious about their task. Their task may be preaching, or holding the door, but someone that cares enough to dress nicely shows that they know how to do the task at hand.
Finally, a well-dressed man or woman shows that they are committed. For two years now I have raised the expectation in terms of dress in the office and I have seen as a result a greater commitment to the task at hand. People work harder, show up on time, and invest more energy into their work. You look your best for the things you care about the most. As Christians we are called to do everything for the glory of God and therefore we must be fully committed in every way to this task.
I am quite sure there may be someone reading this article saying, “Jesus never thought about how he looked.” Which of course would show poor understanding of Jesus. While Jesus of course wasn’t walking around Capernaum in a three-pieced suit, He did live His life fully for the glory of God, therefore in every decision we know he asked the question, “How will God be most glorified in this?” And that is my question to you. Do you dress in such a way that maximizes your Christian influence, shows that you know the job at hand, and shows that you are committed to what God has called you to? In other words, do you dress to the glory of God?

Well 42.4 million Americans tuned in on Sunday to watch the Denver Broncos in a stunning 29-23 overtime win over the Pittsburg Steelers. That made Sunday’s game the highest rated NFL wildcard game since 1994, eighteen years ago. Why, you may be thinking? The answer is Tim Tebow. The nation has become totally enamored with Tim Tebow this season, especially after he led the Bronco’s toward winning 7 of 8 throughout the middle of the season, three of those wins coming in overtime, and three others similar dramatic fashion. But it isn’t Tim Tebow’s arm that people are impressed with, in fact, he has often been ridiculed for being one of the worst passers in the NFL. It also is not Tim’s running ability that people are talking about, though with 660 yards on the season he does have impressive feet for a quarterback. The reason that people are so enamored with Tim Tebow is that he is genuinely in love with Jesus, and he desires that Jesus get all of the glory in his life.
After every game Tim Tebow thanks “his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” He has been ridiculed for his very vocal love for Christ. Comedy pundits like Bill Maher and Saturday Night Live have basically written him off as a religious fanatic. Yet, people are still pulling for Tebow, and people are still talking about him, tweeting about him, and tuning in to his games.
This all points to the fact that our nation is starving for people that have conviction, and that are unwilling to bow to the pressure of postmodernism. The postmodernist says that holding to an exclusive truth like religion is arrogant and that people of faith would do better to simply “keep their faith to themselves.” The postmodernist would say that the problem with making absolute truth claims (as religions do) is that it divides humanity and alienates people. The problem with this viewpoint is that it is illogical and doesn’t work. Ultimately religion is what gives people the answers to the big questions in life. For example, if you want to the know the answer to the question, “Why am I here?” or “What is my purpose in life?” you don’t do a science experiment you turn to faith, belief, or religion. So for the postmodernist to say that you can’t bring “religion” out into public conversation or debate is an intentional attempt to quiet the people of faith, so that postmodern social elites can force their opinions onto the masses.
Fortunately, there are people like Tim Tebow who knows who he is, who knows why God made him, and is living out that purpose with boldness. Tim Tebow really believes the Bible and so he is able to give honor to Christ in the way he boldly speaks and lives. If the word of God is true then our conversations about it are the most important conversations we can ever have. Anyone then, who claims to be a Christian yet never speaks about his or her faith, either doesn’t really believe in Jesus, is a fool, or is a coward. I pray more Christians would follow the example that Tim Tebow is giving the church and stand up for what we know is true, and I pray that we would do this for the glory of Christ in all the earth.

I’m writing this from a park bench just off River Street in Savannah that overlooks the Savannah Harbor and Hutchison Island. It is a great little spot in this world and if you’ve never been down here I highly recommend it. Whenever I come to Savannah I always think back to the first time I visited this great city. It was January 2003 for a fraternity formal and it was especially memorable as I turned 21 that weekend. It is hard for me to believe that was nine years ago, almost a decade, and that I will be a thirty-year old man in just a few weeks. It’s fun to think about who I was then and who I am now, where I thought I would end up then, and where I have landed today. I’m quite sure the next nine years will have many surprises, many victories, and many struggles just as these past nine have had.
I have often said that you only get eight decades in life, and nine if you’re lucky and we all know how quickly those decades go. As we step into 2012, I want to encourage you to spend some time in the next week evaluating your last year, five years, and ten years and asking yourself how you’ve done. Have you accomplished all of the things you set out to do? Have you used those ten years well or is it wasted time? Then I want to encourage you to look at the next ten years. What do you want your life to look like not just in the next one year, but also in the next ten years? People often overestimate what they can do in one year, but underestimate what they can do in ten. Life often times seems short but we can be confident that God has given us enough time to do what he has called us to.
One of the phrases that I try to live by is “Evaluation, Goal Setting, and Implementation.” This is how you get better at anything. I’m serious. If you want to get better at anything you must evaluate, set goals, and implement a plan to achieve those goals. The tragedy of the world though is that so few people ever take time to do this. People are afraid to evaluate out of fear of what they may find. People never take the time to set goals, often times also because of fear, and people never implement a plan because they aren’t disciplined. Because of this, people go year after year, and decade after decade never improving, never becoming who God has called them to be.
So will 2012 be the year that you get better? Will this next decade be the ten years that redefines your life? That starts with evaluation, goal setting, and implementation. My prayer for you is that this would be the year that your life changes and that you begin to desire more in your life. So this week, I want to encourage you to take some time to evaluate, set goals, implement a plan, and get better. Do this for your own good and for the glory of Christ in your life. And do this so that in ten years when you look back on today, you can know you lived well.

Whenever I have to travel there is a defining moment I look forward to every time. I call it the “T.O.T.E.” moment, or the “Top of the Escalator.” If you have ever flown into Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport you know that all arriving passengers have to make their way up a long escalator on their way out. It always feels good to get to the top of that escalator and know that I am home, or at least a only a 45-minute drive from home. Well this past Saturday night I had what was perhaps my best “TOTE” moment yet. On the train coming in from the D terminal I noticed that my train car was filling up with soldiers, even moreso than usual. By the time we got to last stop I may have been standing in the midst of more than 20 of our nations finest men and women, all with eager looks on their faces. They were all young, the oldest one might have been 20 and its not often that I am the “old guy” in a crowd. As we got to the last stop I filed out amidst the soldiers and made my way to the escalator. About halfway up I suddenly realized what was about to happen. It was Christmas, these men and women were coming home for Christmas, and there were likely going to be family members anxiously waiting at the top of the escalator to greet them. Well, sure enough when we got to that point on the escalator when you can see over the top, but you aren’t quite at the top, I started to hear an enormous cheer, similar to roar of the crowd of a basketball game in a jam packed high school gymnasium. There were probably 400 people waiting at the top of the escalator for these heroic men and women. I had never seen such a big crowd waiting to greet arriving passengers.
What I got to see in that one airport moment was a picture of the essence of Christmas in America. Christmas is the incredible story of God’s love for the world, and the hope that we can have in God’s plan for humanity. Even though men were sinners God sent Jesus to save us from sin and to bring us into a relationship with Him. Christmas then is the ultimate season of relationship and reconciliation. I always love singing the old Charles Wesley hymn, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” at Christmas and specifically the line, “Peace on Earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.” Because of Christmas, God and sinners who were once far apart have now been reconciled. Seeing our American soldiers who have so long been away from their families being reunited with them at Christmas was a picture to me of reconciliation. Watching those soldiers reunite with their families reminded me that I have been reunited to God in Christ.
I am proud to be an American, and I am overjoyed that so many young men and women who have been serving our nation faithfully are able to come home this week. More than that however, I am grateful for the reason that they are coming home. They are coming home to celebrate the greatest homecoming story of all, the story of Christ and his invitation to a lost and dying world to come to be reunited and reconciled to God through Him. I pray that you have known this reconciliation in Christ, have experienced God’s grace in this, and are one with God through Jesus. Merry Christmas from our family to yours and may God bless you and send you a Happy New Year.

The first mention of Jesus Christ the redeemer in the scriptures and in all of human history comes just moments after man’s first sin. In Genesis chapter three after the horrible account of the conscious decision of Adam to trust the serpent rather than trust God, to desire to be like God rather than submit to God, we see God giving a curse to the man, the woman, and the serpent. He says to the serpent in verse 15, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. So all through the Old Testament narrative the reader finds himself waiting for this head crusher that would come and restore what the serpent had undone. Through famines, wars, exile, slavery, plagues, and diseases the world was left to wait for this offspring savior. Who would he be? Where would he come from? In world history God showed special strokes of grace to a people in the Middle East, the Hebrews, a nation He had called and blessed. From God’s revelation to the Hebrews we learn more about this Savior, and we learn that He is to come from them and be one of them.
In a quiet moment centuries after the first mention of this redeemer He would come, born in a simple stable in a small town called Bethlehem. Angels sang that night and shepherds watched, unaware that the relationship between creator and creature was about to be forever changed.
The Lamb had come – the one who would be sacrificed for the sins of the world, the one through whom justice would be served, and redemption would occur. In His coming the world would be set right, the head of the serpent would be crushed, man and all creation would be redeemed. This Christmas remember your Redemption. Remember that the curse that mankind has lived under for so many years has been reversed in this Redeemer Jesus Christ. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! Wonder at his life, be strong in his grace, and be faithful in his call. I pray you and your loved ones would have the most wonderful Christmas season as we worship together the Lamb of God.

I love gratitude, being grateful for all that you have been given. Gratitude, real gratitude is at the pinnacle of existence. I believe that to be grateful for something is one of the best feelings you can have in this life. This month we celebrate my favorite Holiday, Thanksgiving. I know as a pastor my favorite holiday ought to be Christmas or Easter, and I love those holidays because in them we celebrate the advent and the resurrection. But Thanksgiving is so simple; at its core it is just a day of gratitude, and particularly gratitude to God. It is a day to recognize God’s supremacy and sovereign rule of the world. It is a day to recognize that God has been good to us, and that God has blessed us.
Whenever I speak with someone seeking advice, the one bit that I believe is most valuable is “be grateful.” Have you taken time today to be grateful? When you wake up in the morning do you pause just for a moment and thank God for another day? When someone is kind to you, do you take the time to stop and thank them for thinking about you? Do you find yourself bitter about the stuff that didn’t work out for you or grateful for the things that did? Gratitude is the best of things.
So this Thanksgiving, don’t waste the day. Even if you have to sit next to that uncle that you really don’t like, or even if all the good pieces of turkey have been taken by the time you go through the line, be grateful, take the time to be thankful. Ultimately, my hope is that you would take time to thank the Lord, the great provider. His hand of grace and provision we do not deserve, but nonetheless he continually extends to us. And my prayer is that the spirit of gratitude that we all enjoy around a dinner table on the fourth Thursday of November would not stop there, but that it would continue on to Friday and Saturday, and everyday. My prayer is that we would be a grateful people. If we would but stay focused on this, it would give us renewed joy and great peace. May God bless your family this Thanksgiving and all through the Holiday season. I am grateful for you.

Nearly 2000 years ago Jesus challenged eleven men to get on mission with Him for the sake of His Kingdom. He commanded them to make disciples of people from every nation, to baptize them, and to teach them to obey the law of Christ. These eleven men had very few resources, they had little education, and they found themselves in the middle of a Roman Empire that wanted to destroy them, but they had the Holy Spirit and they were on mission. I am sure many sensible people told them that the task in front of them was impossible, but they were on mission. Many of them because of this mission traveled hundreds and even thousands of miles from their homes, many of them were crucified for their faith and their work for Christ, many of them were stoned, in fact in one way or another all but one of them were brutally murdered for their obedience to this command of Christ, but they were on mission. Nothing, and I mean nothing could stop them. Eventually, their number grew and other believers joined them in this mission, even Caesar, the most powerful man in the world, could not put them down. Jesus had promised that He would be with them and by the power of the Holy Spirit he was with them.
It is easy to forget that that is where First Baptist, and where your church came from. In a world where most of us had the Gospel at our fingertips from the time we were born, in a world where the most persecution we have ever faced for something we believed probably came from another person that called themselves a Christian, it is really hard to identify with the early disciples. It is easy to forget that like them we are on mission, we are on a serious mission, a mission that we have been called to by Christ. Today, we have a lot of resources, we have a lot of education, and we find ourselves in a country that is very sympathetic to the cause of Christ; and yet with all of this, the church in America is failing at the mission. Here nearly 2000 years after the Great Commission was given 40% of the world is still unevangelized, our churches are declining in numbers, and society is looking less and less to the church for answers. It is really easy for the church in this environment to hold on to what we have hoping that we do not lose anything else, but we cannot have this kind of attitude. We cannot afford to be safe, we cannot afford to sit still we have to be on the move, we have to get on mission. Church life can often be frustrating because it often seems that we spend more time arguing with one another about small things than we do making disciples. We have an enemy and it is not our brothers and sisters in Christ it is Satan and he is not sitting still, he is on the move and he wants to destroy the Church and the life of believers. If we want to move forward we have to be willing to do whatever it takes to take the Gospel forward. We have a great enemy and we must be relentless. My prayer for our churches is that we would be on mission, focused on what Christ has called us to do no matter what. We must all be committed to give and to remain focused on heavenly things not on earthly things. Therefore as a Christian leader in this community I want to publicly commit to throw off the things that easily entangle and to strain forward for the things of my Lord. I pray that you would join me in this and lets together, unified, get on mission to make Jesus great in all the earth, for the sake of his glory. Amen.

Well I got to see ole James Taylor a few months back and, as always with James Taylor, it was a great show. The man may be sixty-three but he can still rock. Thousands were there enjoying the beautiful night; they were out to have fun, and fun they had. As Mr. Taylor broke into “Sweet Baby James” the woman to my left sprung to her feet, put her hands in the air, closed her eyes, and with a smile on her face sang along. As I watched her in a moment of James Taylor Joy, I couldn’t help but think of some of the worship services I have been to where I have seen similar looking women and men with the same expression, the same hands waved in the air, and the same joy as they sung along. After these worship services I have heard people as they left saying things like “worship tonight was awesome,” or “now that was worship.” This is all very similar to some of the things I heard as I was leaving the James Taylor show that night, “James was awesome tonight,” and “now that was a concert.” So what is the difference between the James Taylor concert and Christian Worship? Now I am not suggesting that people who hold their hands up in worship services are disingenuous, but if Christian Worship is limited to singing along, with your eyes closed, and your hands raised, then why not go to a James Taylor concert? In recent years I have noticed a trend in the church to put an emphasis on giving people a great “experience” when they are in worship services rather than urging them to live Godly lives. My prayer for First Baptist is that we would measure the success of our worship services not on what people do when they are in the service, but rather on how they live when they are not in the service. Too many of our churches have bought into the lie that successful worship means feel good entertainment. I don’t want people coming to our worship services to feel good about themselves, but rather to feel good about the God they serve and the savior who loves them. As we learn to turn our focus away from seeking our own pleasures, to seeking the pleasure of God, then and only then will we find true worship and true joy. Let us encourage one another daily to live out “worship” as we learn and follow the will of our Lord. For the sake of his Kingdom, for the Glory of his name. Amen.

I am always asked this time of year, “What should Christians do with Halloween?” Now for most Americans Halloween is a fun night to dress up and eat candy, but it does have some connection to pagan ritual and is a holy time for neo pagans. Therefore many Christian families feel that it is inappropriate for a Christ follower to participate. So what is right?
A few years ago Mark Driscoll a pastor in Seattle wrote a wonderful article on the broader idea of how should Christians interact with culture? He basically concluded that Christians can do one of three things with the culture, we can reject it, we can receive it, or we can redeem it. I tend to agree with his conclusion and I believe his paradigm can apply to Halloween. There is no getting away from Halloween; it is a big part of what it means to be an American. So as Christians we can either reject it, receive it, or redeem it.
We can reject Halloween, pretend like it doesn’t happen, and keep our children sheltered from the notion, but let’s be honest; this is impossible and will likely lead to some resentment in your child’s heart for being left out. We can receive Halloween and treat it like a fun day that the whole country enjoys, but where do you draw the line on how much of Halloween you accept? Or we as Christians can redeem Halloween. The world has flavored this day in our culture to be a day of pointless costumes and expensive candy, how are we as Christians going to take back the flavor of this day. Rather than asking, “Should we celebrate Halloween?” I think the better question for parents to ask is, “How should we celebrate Halloween, or Christmas, or Easter or any other holiday?” In Christ we are not called to live some days for God’s glory, have a few days of sin, and then live a bunch of days somewhere in between; we are called to redeem every day, every hour, for the glory of God. So this October 31, while the whole world is dressing up and loading up on candy, how are you as a follower of Jesus going to redeem that day for his glory? I don’t think the answer is pretending like it isn’t Halloween.
If you are a parent and your child wants to “dress up” for Halloween, know that dressing up can be a great tool for teaching. But rather than letting them dress up like Justin Bieber, or Cinderella, get a warrior costume for your son and then read to them the account of Revelation 19 when the Christians go into battle with Christ. Another idea is to dress your son or your daughter up like a Bible character or someone famous from church history. An example here is a man or a woman from the time of the Reformation. After all it was October 31, 1517 that the Reformation of the church began, when Martin Luther hung the 95 Thesis on the church doors at Wittenberg.
If you want to take your child trick or treating make sure that they don’t waste the hours with the only purpose of getting as much candy as possible. An idea here is to have your child make a few cards with words of truth or encouragement written on them, for example, “Christ Jesus came to save sinners” or simply “God loves you.” Let your children write these cards and then have them give a card to every house they visit. This is a great way to teach your children about sharing God’s truth with everyone they meet.
Redeeming the culture isn’t difficult; it just takes some intentional thought and effort. Halloween is a big day in the life of children. I still remember being so excited about dressing up and going door to door to get my favorite candy. As a parent you have a golden opportunity to shape that energy of your child into something that is God honoring and eternal. Don’t waste this October 31st. Redeem that day for the glory of Christ.