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Welcome
to 2003!
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Dear Christian brothers and sisters,
Greetings and Happy New Year! I hope that you have enjoyed your holiday season.
This past year we as pastors have enjoyed bringing you messages from the book
of Genesis. Genesis is a book filled with great stories, and it sets forward
significant themes from the Bible that will be seen throughout the rest of Scripture.
It was a good place to start as we begin to work on a systematic plan for increasing
Biblical literacy.
So what will we do now that Genesis is finished? We as pastors have been encouraged
by church leaders to pick up difficult topics related to the family. Since we
have been in the Old Testament for some time, we felt that it would be best
to move to the New Testament to address these issues. So this January, we hope
to share what we believe the New Testament says about marriage, divorce, and
sex before marriage. These messages may be challenging and difficult at times,
but it will be good for us as a church to be discussing them.
After this series on family living, we plan to go through 1 John from February
through June. We will take some time and read through the entire epistle chapter
by chapter and verse by verse. We believe that you will find 1 John to be an
encouraging letter and easy to understand as Biblical books go. These reasons
make it a good choice for this next year.
We hope that our approach to the messages this winter and spring will increase
Biblical literacy and also provide challenge along with encouragement. In the
past year, we have not dodged a difficult passage or minimized an encouraging
one. We do plan to keep challenge and encouragement balanced for the next year
as we continue to let the entirety of the Bible speak to us.
There are many promises in Scripture that are ours when the whole book of the
Bible, with its challenging and encouraging words, is brought to bear upon us.
One of the most remarkable texts is Joshua 1:8. It says, "This book of
the law [meaning the entirety of Scripture] shall not depart out of your mouth;
you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in
accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way
prosperous, and then you shall be successful." This is one of many promises
that if we take into account, our Lord will bless our lives.
May God bless us all as we live under His Scripture and let the Living Word,
Jesus Christ, shine in our lives this New Year!
Dr. Drake Williams, III,
Minister of Spiritual Enrichment