Dear Friends,
I hope you are doing well on this pretty Saturday in March. We have finally arrived at the season of Lent. God has many blessing for us as individuals and together as a church family. I hope you are using your 2025 Lent Devotional written by people of our church.
In this book, on Ash Wednesday, we had the scripture for our Ash Wednesday Service. On Thursday, we heard from Rev. Jake Brown, our pastor from 1976 to 1981. The devotional that we used is from an Advent Devotional book that our church created in 1976. Jake asks the profound question that many people choose to avoid. Our pastor from the 1970’s asks us, “Who will you serve? It may be Jesus. It may be something or someone else, but we will all choose.” On Friday, Gay Johnson shared some great wisdom that was planted in her heart by her father, Tillis. I hope you will read that devotional and better yet, live into the truth of the Bible found in that devotional. Today’s devotional is written by one of our youth, Anjennica Newel. Anjennica shares with us about how the Lord spoke to her recently at a youth event and how one’s purpose is to listen to God so that we can grow in God’s love and our relationships with Him. Yes, you are correct in thinking that your pastor is excited about this devotional book. If you haven’t gotten one yet, please make sure and pick one up on Sunday so you may be with the rest of your church family on this spiritual journey that we are taking together.
As we prepare to meet with God tomorrow in worship, please note that the Sundays in our Lent devotional book are the: title of the sermon, scripture for the sermon and the main theme. I normally invite everyone to read a certain scripture to prepare for Sunday’s worship experience, but today I can say just turn to the “first Sunday in Lent page.” All you need is there. If you don’t have a book yet or want to read it in your own Bible, please read Deuteronomy 30:11-20. In this passage God is speaking through Moses to call the people of Israel to focus their hearts on God to get ready to move forward with what He is calling them to.
Speaking of worship tomorrow, please don’t forget to set your clocks forward one hour before you go to bed tonight. Yes, this is that Sunday in the year that if you don’t adjust your clocks, you will show up an hour late on Sunday at Church. So, please adjust your clocks before you go to bed tonight.
We had two great Ash Wednesday Services on Wednesday. Both services had a sweet presence of the Holy Spirit in them. I was so pleased that we had three guests at our noon service. Wednesday Evening, we had a great time at our R.O.W. Supper. Then, we had a fun time playing “Lent Jeopardy”. Then, we went in our sanctuary at 6:30 for a special time of meeting with God together. If you are on Facebook, please see the pictures that I posted about that night. At both services, we had a four-point message calling us to: Be Redeemed, Repent of the wrong ways of thinking, Regrets (let’s let go of them) and Be Riveted to one another in love and mission as a church. I hope everyone will live into these 4 R’s of Lent.
Please pray for the families of Bob Cantrell and Bob Trehern. We are going to miss these two dear brothers in the Lord. Bob Trehern’s family met with me on Thursday of this week to make plans. Bob Trehern’s service will be in our sanctuary at 11:00, Tuesday morning with a viewing time the hour before. Our church family will be blessing the Trehern family with a lunch at noon on Tuesday. If you would like to help provide food or a financial donation for the lunch, please let Bobbie Spencer know at 251-232-2983.
I do believe God is going to be working in our lives this Lent! So please, please, please take the first step and be with us tomorrow and join in on the sacred rhythm by using our daily devotional guide. I don’t really know what all God is going to do, but since He is a God of love, I know it will involve us experiencing more of His love. We can’t lose with a God like our Father.
Rev. Dave Rhodes